Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele on Monday called on all South Africans to do their part in reducing road deaths, after 57 people lost their lives in road accidents this past week.
This toll comes ahead of expected higher traffic volumes over the upcoming Easter weekend.
“All of us have no other option but to act individually and collectively to stop this carnage on our roads,” said Ndebele.
“We can achieve this by simply obeying all road rules.”
Ndebele said that South Africans should commit to a decade of action for road safety.
“We can do more to prevent road deaths from ravaging our communities,” he said.
Amongst those killed was a Johannesburg metro police officer, a seven-year-old girl, four Egyptian refugees and a high school student on his way to protest at the “Jub Jub” murder trial.
The metro cop was killed when he was hit by a car on the N1 freeway while trying to retrieve his colleague’s cap on Sunday.
The Grade 10 pupil was hit and killed by a truck on Thursday while on his way to protest at the court case involving hip-ho
artist Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye and Themba Tshabalala, who are facing murder charges following the deaths of four schoolboys while the pair were allegedly racing down a Soweto street.
On Wednesday evening, six people, including four Egyptian refugees, were killed in a collision in the North West.
The seven-year-old girl killed in a crash in Hout Bay was one of 25 people who died last Monday.
The worst accident that day saw fifteen people killed and 21 others seriously injured in an accident between two vans and a bakkie in Bothaville in the Northern Free State.
Two separate accidents involving minibus taxis last Monday, saw eight people killed and five injured in an accident on the Mabopane Highway near Rosslyn; as well as one person killed and 16 injured when a taxi collided with a bakkie on the N14 outside Pretoria. — Sapa