SA's deadly Christmas tradition

Justin Pearce
BBC News website, Johannesburg

Road carnage. The South African term says it all, and has become a grim national institution.

Typical holiday reading in South Africa

As the country shuts down for the Christmas season, traffic accidents are one topic that is guaranteed to fill the space in the newspapers.

Lerato, who works in Johannesburg, said she was worried about accidents when she set off by car to spend the holidays with her family in Limpopo province in the north.

"But I don't think I have a choice," she said.

"Buses are inconvenient because they drop you off far away, and they are packed with people going home. And if you try to take a minibus taxi, there's still a high risk of accidents, and you will queue at the taxi rank for at least four hours."

Starting on the Reconciliation Day public holiday on 16 December, people pour out of Johannesburg and the other cities of the interior.

Some are heading to the beach, others to families in rural areas. Road journeys of 1,000 km (600 miles) and more are not uncommon.

Grim toll

In the first three weeks of December, at least 560 people lost their lives in road accidents. A government spokesman welcomed the fact that this was better than the 726 deaths over the equivalent period last year.

Recent accidents 16 Dec: 5 killed in bus and cars, Mpumalanga 16 Dec: 3 killed in minibus taxi, North West 16 Dec: 2 injured in minibus taxi, KwaZulu-Natal 17 Dec: 21 killed in bus, Free State 17 Dec: 5 killed in minibus taxi, Free State 18 Dec: 9 killed in minibus taxi, W Cape Total killed since 1 Dec: 560

In the biggest single incident so far this season, 21 bus passengers lost their lives in an accident near Wepener in Free State province.

The same weekend, six minibus passengers were killed in a head-on collision with a truck near Beaufort West in the Western Cape.

Thabo Tsoletsane of the government's Road Traffic Management Corporation points out that accidents are a year-round phenomenon, though the volume of traffic on the roads is highest around the Christmas and Easter holiday periods.

"Some people aren't used to driving long distances - they don't know they must take breaks, they suffer from fatigue and they have accidents.

"The legacy of apartheid is that some people own vehicles that are old, and they can't afford the spares."

Laws

New legislation that is to go before parliament early next year will allow drivers' licences to be suspended for speeding - at present, licences can be suspended only for drunken driving offences.

Minibus taxis are often badly maintained

But Mr Tsoletsane believes that laws alone cannot be effective without the co-operation of magistrates and other officers of the law: "The justice system is overloaded and doesn't take traffic issues seriously."

Mr Tosletsane recognises that there are not enough traffic officers on the roads, and says the government is trying to tackle corruption among police and vehicle safety inspectors.

"Badly maintained taxis shouldn't be on the road. Taxis have to be tested yearly - but owners just pay for the certificates to get back on the road."

Policing

South African traffic officers have a habit of setting up speed cameras and then hiding behind bushes or under bridges - a tactic that brings in money in fines for the local authorities, but does little to prevent people from speeding in the first place.

Hitting the highways - an annual ritual

"There is pressure on them to generate funds - they need to be more visible," says Johan Jonck, who voluntarily established the website for the government's Arrive Alive road safety campaign.

As a child, Mr Jonck lost his mother in a road accident - more recently he became involved in road safety after another accident, which cost the life of one of the players in a rugby team he manages.

"One of the biggest problems is attitudes," he says, arguing that the government needs to be more vigorous about enforcing the law.

"Most accidents are the result of alcohol - also not wearing a seatbelt or driving without licences. Speeding is only a small part of it."

Advertising

The Arrive Alive campaign has been around for more than a decade, publishing accident statistics on roadside billboards and advertising on radio, TV and in the press.

But its success is questionable. Fatal road accident statistics show a steady rise since 1997, after falling in the mid-1990s.

One of Arrive Alive's radio ads, highlighting drunken driving, won a prize in this year's Loerie Awards - the South African advertising industry's annual honours.

But advertising can only do so much. Andrew Human, managing director of the Loerie Awards, was reluctant to comment on the effectiveness of the Arrive Alive campaign, but suggested that accident prevention requires more than adverts.

"As an individual, I believe that if we had the kind of fines where people went to jail or had their cars confiscated, we'd have fewer accidents in this country."