By Nangamso Mabindla
25 April 2007

ROAD safety was on the agenda when the Eastern Cape provincial department of roads and transport launched the first United Nations Global Road Safety Week in Mdantsane on Tuesday, 24 April.

To ensure that the message was understood, district and local municipalities held exhibitions and talked about road safety at the launch, held at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium. Buffalo City Municipality and the Amathole and the Cacadu district municipalities all put in an appearance.

Global Road Safety Week is a pledge by the UN to work to improve road safety worldwide. The organisation has called on its member countries to spread the word during the week about the number of deaths caused by road accidents. Ways of preventing road fatalities will also be promoted, like wearing seatbelts and not driving under the influence of alcohol.

Nearly 1,2 million people are killed on the world's roads every year, 40 percent of whom are under the age of 25. The worldwide launch was held in Geneva, Switzerland. The slogan for the week is "Road safety is no accident"; it will run until Sunday, 29 April.

Before the Mdantsane launch, the MEC for roads and transport, Thobile Mhlahlo, and his education counterpart, Johnny Makgato, visited Ulwazi School in NU2 to unveil a plaque dedicated to learners who died in a recent road accident.

Mhlahlo said that it was important to talk about road safety in schools. "We want to teach young people about road safety. We want to start at a young age so that they are aware about the dangers facing them on the roads."

By launching the road safety week, his department wanted to concentrate on saving lives and to educate young people so that they could contribute to nation building.

"Today I was told of an accident in Mthatha [in the Transkei] where five lives were lost; at least 36 lives are lost on our roads daily. That is why we feel that education is important if we want to have safe roads in our country."

Mhlahlo took the opportunity also to donate five computers to the school.

Makgato said that even though learners were not drivers, they were victims in road accidents. "Many of our learners get run down by careless drivers. Today I visited a hospital where a learner was lying injured after being run over [on her way to school] by a careless driver."

It was important that road safety education was started in schools; traffic officers should be sent to schools to help learners cross the roads. "Statistics show that many victims of road accidents are pedestrians. We need to teach our children about road safety from a very young age," Makgato added.

The day was not only about education, however - the thousands of spectators at the stadium were entertained by kwaito band El Vovo di Rango.