#BeRoadSafe Safies* seeks to end road carnage

Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

South Africans from all walks of life are being asked to heed a call to promote road safety and address road carnage.

This is an initiative called #BeRoadSafe Safies* by Puma Energy and Road Safety Ambassador, Phillip Kekana.

They are putting out a challenge to South Africans to become road safety heroes in their communities.

The call is on South Africans need to speak up and post their #BeRoadSafe Safies* to help reduce distracted driving incidents this festive season. These social posts aim to inspire motorists and pedestrians to become road safety heroes across the nation.

Kekana, Puma Energy Road Safety Ambassador commented, “If we all change our bad driving habits, we have the power to reduce our national road carnage, provided we work together towards this common goal during the holiday season. We recently partnered with Active Education and embarked on a road safety roadshow in KwaZulu-Natal. We provided the children with knowledge and glow bands, so they are visible to motorists. The kids will hopefully pass the #BeRoadSafe lessons onto their parents, siblings and friends. We encouraged the children to take #BeRoadSafe Safies to alert the community of road risks and inspire safety on their daily travels.”
Moreover, Puma Energy has been actively educating children across the globe to #BeRoadSafe for almost a decade.

However, road traffic accidents continue as the biggest cause of childhood deaths in South Africa we all have a vital role to play to change the disastrous course of road safety, said the organisers.

Puma Energy, Phillip Kekana and road safety partner Active Education have visited several schools in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal to continue the brave efforts of empowering the youth to transform themselves into responsible road users.

The learners were educated on the dangers of distracted driving and were given glow bands, so they become more visible to motorists. The school kids will also be in charge of driving the #BeRoadSafe Safies challenge. These social updates of road risks will warn other pedestrians and ultimately help to save lives.

Seggie Kistasamy, General Manager of Puma Energy South Africa believes, “A simple act of driving mobile-free can be the difference between life and death. If we all consciously drive better, we can lower road fatalities. We believe the children that take up the #BeRoadSafe challenge will become our country’s shield, they will become the guardians that constantly remind motorists to be alert and help us reduce senseless road deaths. We all need to collaborate towards this common cause and do everything in our power to become road safety heroes in our own communities.”

Puma Energy is a proud United Nations official supporter and for many years has committed to a decade of action for road safety.

This commitment involves its employees, road safety ambassador, road safety partners, local authorities and their communities under one common goal – to reduce traffic accidents, to spread the #BeRoadSafe message and, ultimately, to save lives.

Next year marks the end of the United Nations’ Decade of Action for Road Safety 2020; which aims to halve the number of road deaths, and numbers have shown that South Africa has failed to reach these goals.
The organisers are appealing for “road safety heroes across our nation need to join forces and share #BeRoadSafe Safies that not only raise awareness of road risks but to help change the way we walk, drive and act when it comes to our safety on our national roads.”

“We all know someone who has been in a fatal car crash. Did this make you stop and think about changing the way you drive?, asks the organisers.

Kekana was recently on SAFM radio talking about road safety, how he started as taxi driver to ultimately become South Africa’s First Black Production Car Champion.

Research confirms that over 135,000 South Africans have perished due to road accidents in the past decade.
Puma Energy South Africa and Kekana, the road safety ambassador, have been going into schools across Gauteng and KZN (the pilot project) to educate the next generation of road users to #BeRoadSafe.
They add, “We recognise that we need to start changing bad driving behaviour at a young age to prevent further pedestrian accidents.”

We all need to do our part to reduce road fatalities. If we can bring down the national pedestrian figures by as much as 20%, we can save 2700 lives this festive season.”

Puma Energy strongly emphasizes, “Our aim is to get as many South Africans as possible to share their #BeRoadSafe SAFIES to show others to put on safety belts, wear helmets, check their tyres, expose the dangers of texting and driving."

Leadership & Development

Ramaphosa should focus on a more inclusive approach to governing

2019-12-04 13:31

News24

President Cyril Ramaphosa must work on strengthening the relationship between South Africans and the government, says the writer. (City Press)

Even though last weekend's downgrades to negative by Standard & Poor's Global can be seen as an economic growth setback, the fact that Moody has not downgraded SA yet is testimony to positives changes ahead.

Citing a weak pace of economic growth, the government debt burden and Eskom's liabilities, S&P Global on Friday downgraded its outlook for SA's credit rating to negative.

Fitch had also given SA the "negative".

However, a couple of weeks earlier, the Global Competitiveness Report 2019, moved SA up seven places to 60th on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 4.0.

The WEF report released recently comes at about the time President Cyril Ramaphosa emerges a bit stronger since the May polls.

Having replaced Jacob Zuma as president of the republic in February 2018, Ramaphosa set the country on a mission to recover from the economic decline of the Zuma years.

SA faced an investment strike and massive job losses during Zuma's time in office.

Industrial action intensified; state-owned enterprises (SOEs) broke down and the country is still feeling the effects of that period.

Ratings agencies downgrades did not help our situation but made them worse as SA became the country to avoid for investors.

This meant that jobs could not be created at the rate the nation needed.

SA's national fabric has also been stained by other negative sentiments including political factionalism, succession politics and disunity.

The country is still reeling, albeit with slight improvements starting to appear here and there.

And of course, it is still early days to start declaring that Ramaphosa is the solution SA has been crying out for.

But, fair enough, when it comes to the economy, Ramaphosa has already shown that his tenure will be an economic and jobs-orientated one.

What will be interesting to see though in the next couple of months before he completes two years as president, is whether he will be able to effectively explain economic policy to all South Africans; and also to the rest of the world.

His predecessors were not able to communicate policy of any sort to the rest of society effectively and walk with all the nation's stakeholders on the "great march" toward economic development for all.

This was one of the reasons that Thabo Mbeki and Zuma could not complete their second terms. The consequence of all this lack of leadership in the direction the country was taking has led to constant protest action.

Ramaphosa would want to effectively attend to this challenge as he does not wish to widen the gap between government and the rest of society, especially the masses.

A democratic state must actually completely close the gap between government and the people.

His newsletter "From the Desk of the President" is a welcome move insofar as informing and educating the public about the government's doings.

The president needs to constantly make greater efforts to be understood by the rest of the nation on policy issues and how the country's stakeholders will communicate and explain policy positions among each other and with the rest of the world.

Although Ramaphosa’s $100 billion infrastructure drive has yet to be fulfilled, the R300 billion worth of investments that have made their way into South Africa since Ramaphosa took over last February, are no small play.

Analysts and commentators  have a point in calling for the president to provide more clarity on a consistent basis on what all this money will do.

A good sign of Ramaphosa being prepared to listen has come in the form of an appointment of an 18-member Presidential Economic Advisory Council.

And an investment council should provide new energy to a promising presidency.

These indeed reveal a president who is not arrogant and who does not carry a "know-it-all" attitude.

However, a great effort for Ramaphosa to be understood and possibly be supported by all South Africans including his foes in the ANC and the tripartite alliance, rests with him.

As long as there's no unity within the governing party and its alliance partners, SA is unlikely to realise its economic ambitions.

The dream of creating millions of jobs will fly out of the window.

More unemployment would be the order of the day. More societal ills are likely to emerge.

The so-called "new dawn" would be over.

To win over a nation is no walk in the park.

This process requires the leader of the nation to want to be heard, understood and supported.

If not, he must remember what happens when there's a great gap between the government and the people. 

Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

Cape Town