Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula.
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has said the government’s “biggest Achilles’ heel” is trucks and reckless driving on the roads, and that these challenges will persist as long as the majority of the country’s freight goods are transported via road instead of rail.
Mbalula said his department could not be held responsible for reckless driving, days after the high death toll on South Africa’s roads again came under the spotlight following a horrific crash that claimed the lives of 18 children and two adults on the N2 highway outside Pongola, in the far north of KwaZulu-Natal.
Ten of the children were boys and eight were girls, varying from grade R to grade 7, with six being grade 1 learners.
Their names are: Thingo Simelane (grade R), Siyamthanda Dlamini (grade 2), Lwandile Nkonde (grade 1), Sandiswa Nkosi (grade 3), Minenhle Ntshangase (grade 1), Nothando Ntshangase (grade 1) Siphesihle Simelane (grade 1), Thembelihle Simelane (grade 5), Buso Goba (grade R) and Kusasa Goba (grade 1), Junior Thikazi (grade R), Siyanda Mlangeni (grade 5), Mduduzi (grade 6) and Sigcino Nkonyane (grade R), Asanda Mhlongo (grade 7), Alwande Simelane (grade 4), Bandile Nyawo (grade 4) and Mpilenhle Makhangeza (grade 1).
Mbalula, after a three-hour delay to a media briefing on Thursday, announced the outcome of an investigation into the crash conducted by the Road Traffic Management Corporation that found that truck driver Sibusiso Siyaya overtook multiple vehicles and drove on the oncoming traffic lane for nearly 1.2km.
“These vehicles had to swerve out of the way of the approaching truck. The driver never made any attempt to return to his correct lane,” Mbalula said.
The report said the manner in which the school children were being transported — the back of a light delivery van — was dangerous and illegal. The National Road Traffic Act prohibits transportation of school children in the goods compartment of a motor vehicle.
The report concluded that “driver error” was the major contributing factor for the crash.
Siyaya was arrested and appeared in the Pongola magistrate’s court on multiple charges of culpable homicide. The matter was postponed to 26 September.
In an interview with Mail & Guardian this week, ahead of his department launching another road safety campaign in October, Mbalula said he was “frustrated” that citizens were blaming the government for the crash, while Siyaya’s behaviour was downplayed.
“A double barrier line says you are not supposed to overtake, [and yet] the issue does not become a reckless driver or reckless behaviour,” he said. “How are we going to transform this country and instil in our citizens a sense of responsibility?”
Residents had long complained to authorities — including via Twitter — about trucks being driven recklessly along the N2 stretch in Pongola. Mbalula, a prolific user of Twitter who styles himself as “Mr Fixit”, said he could not be held responsible for complaints raised via social media.
“There are many complaints about roads that come to me. I am the only minister visible on social media. I’ve got 2.8-million people following me,” Mbalula said, insisting that he was not “running away” from problems that fell within the purview of his department. “I am addressing problems every day,” he said.
He said there had been discussions at a national level to upgrade the N2, as well as other roads, like the similarly dangerous R573 (Moloto Road) in Gauteng. Funds had been allocated for the expansion of the N2, he said.
In his 2022-2023 budget speech in May, Mbalula allocated R76.4-billion to the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral), with more than R45-billion of that to be used to “upgrade, strengthen and refurbish the national non‐toll roads network and R2.8-billion set aside for Moloto Road”.
The N2 near Pongola has seen multiple fatal crashes involving trucks. In 2011, all five occupants of a car were killed in a head-on collision with a truck. The driver was unharmed and a case of culpable homicide was opened.
Residents in Pongola say several outcries about the poorly regulated road have been made to local and national governments.
In 2019, resident Jabu Hansen started pleading via Twitter for the provincial government, Sanral and the RTMC to act, tagging Mbalula in his posts. In his most recent plea on 26 August, Hansen said: “Trucks are killing us on the Pongola N2, no traffic cops manning this route except local traffic cops when trucks get to town. We request your urgent intervention.”
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian, Hansen said his plea came after he was told by the local municipality’s management that “the N2 is not our responsibility, Sanral is responsible for it”. Follow-up efforts to speak to the municipal manager were fruitless, Hansen said.
The M&G was unable to get in touch with the municipal manager for comment.
In a Twitter response to a post from Hansen in May, resident Khayelihle Mawandla said he had approached the provincial government after losing three family members in a collision on the N2. According to Mawandla, he too was told that Sanral was responsible for the road.
On 22 December, while releasing the provisional festive season statistics, Mbalula said the government was “seriously concerned about the high number of major crashes, where five or more people perish in a single incident”. He said the number of fatalities from major crashes had increased from 34 in 2020, to 111 last year.
In his interview with the M&G this week, Mbalula said there was a “problem with trucks” transporting goods from production sites to ports in Richards Bay and Durban.
Stretching through a residential area in Pongola, the N2 has become a notorious route for long-haul and articulated trucks carrying coal between Ermelo in Mpumalanga and the ports in KwaZulu-Natal.
Pongola residents refer to the route as the “coal run”.
“That is the biggest Achilles’ heel for this government and for this country that we must resolve. Because as long as we are not moving those trucks from the road to rail, we are bound for many challenges,” Mbalula said, adding: “We must put measures [in place] to put a stop to reckless driving and for the truck [drivers] themselves to behave on the road. That is it.”
Asked what the government’s plan was to address reckless driving and the number of trucks on the road, Mbalula reiterated that the viable alternative was rail.
“Remember the policy we are implementing now, in terms of getting the rail infrastructure to be up to speed. So that we are able to move these trucks off the road and put the goods on the rail. That is what we are doing at this moment,” he said.
Cabinet approved a white paper on national rail policy. This represents a “new era” and “new epoch” for railways in South Africa, Mbalula said during the launch of the policy. March.
The policy envisages radical structural reforms in the transport sector and allows for private investment into the country’s deteriorated railway network.
“We are working with Transnet … to implement the policy that we have passed to address the problem of congestion of trucks on the road,” Mbalula said.
And regarding reckless road behaviour, can the number of traffic officers who regulate and monitor roads be increased?
“Where is the money for the traffic officers going to come from, because we don’t have [the funds]. We do not have money for traffic officers for each and every road to be manned,” the minister responded.
He said local governments must provide traffic officers, “but they do not have money to have them work extra time or to employ more”.
According to another concerned Pongola resident, Adrain Chaning-Pearce, there are 12 local municipality police forces that must cover an area of nearly 3 200㎢.
In Thursday’s briefing, a day after speaking to the M&G, Mbalula said law enforcement in the province would be strengthened.
“All mobile testing centres [connected to] the KZN department of transport will be deployed with immediate effect on the N2 Pongola area and visibility of traffic law enforcement officers will be intensified,” he said.
“It has become fashionable to portray us as useless, and not thinking. But asking if I am aware of the roads like N2, I am aware of it, and what am I doing about it? Sanral is expanding. It is not that we are sitting on our laurels, we react when there is an accident, we address them. That is what we actually do,” he added.
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