Government needs to step in

The proliferation of car guards and street vendors directing traffic during loadshedding is a serious concern, and traffic authorities must do more to ensure the proper flow of traffic during times when traffic lights are not functioning. The Automobile Association (AA) agrees that untrained pointsmen who direct traffic could be responsible for more harm than good and should be discouraged from this practice.

While the intention is noble, and in many cases traffic does flow, it only takes one serious accident to realise the folly of this endeavour. Since the pointsmen are not legally authorised to perform this duty, there will be no legal recourse should something go wrong.

The Association says, however, that motorists have no choice but to comply with the directions given in such circumstances because all drivers are following the instructions. “It is impossible for one motorist to ignore these instructions as this would cause chaos when other drivers are complying. This situation requires urgent intervention by traffic authorities who, in many cases, are simply nowhere to be seen when traffic lights go down,” says the AA.

Loadshedding schedules are widely available, and traffic authorities should do more to deploy personnel to those areas which carry the most traffic, specifically during peak traffic times.

Some good news in the 2023 Budget Speech

During the 2023 National Budget recently presented by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana government acknowledged that constraints in logistics had negatively affected economic growth and employment. Shocking is the fact that more than a quarter of long-distance freight traffic has shifted onto the road in the past five years as a result of severe deterioration of the freight rail network.

“This is due in large part to historical underinvestment in the network. Prolonged power failures and poor operational performance of transport industries continue to hamper operations and investment in manufacturing, mining and agriculture. Several reforms are under way to improve the performance of the transport sector, specifically freight rail and to improve the capability of the state.” said Godongwana.

More important than the acknowledgement, was the invitation to the private sector to get involved in a potential solution. Government is currently pursuing greater competition in transport and logistics through third-party access to the freight rail sector which is now in a pilot phase. In addition, several other reforms are in place to support recovery in the transport sector.

It is great to see that the transport industry formed such a big part of this year’s budget speech. We can now only hope that these measures are practically put in place because they should have positive effect on the economy while also contributing to improved road safety.