On Monday, Dorcas Lekota's daughter gave birth to a baby girl. On Tuesday, the proud grandmother travelled from Pretoria to Polokwane planning to see her grandchild.
She never made it.
The taxi she had been travelling in collided head on with another vehicle on the N1 highway near Mookgophong, Limpopo. Along with 16 other passengers, Lekota died a horrific death on what has become one of the SA’s most dangerous roads, according to the transport department.
It is common cause that accidents on that road, and elsewhere in the country are caused as much by reckless driver behaviour as they are by road conditions. As drivers, therefore, we must shoulder the responsibility to abide by the rules and when we fail, we must face the full might of the law.
However, the reaction by authorities tasked with safeguarding our transport network after this latest crash gives insight into the lax attitude of various spheres of government to the carnage on our roads.
Here we must single out transport minister Fikile Mbalula. When asked by this newspaper how his department planned to intervene, if at all, to promote safety on that notorious stretch, Mbalula took a narrow, disingenuous and frankly arrogant stance that he could not be asked about one road when his department is in charge of the entire road network of the country.
It is bizarre for the minister to suggest that simply because his portfolio of work is vast, he ought not to be engaged on one aspect of it even if such an aspect elevates itself in the national discourse by virtue of its proportionally higher threat to human life.
Mbalula’s failure to grasp this concept demonstrates his lack of understanding of the responsibilities his job entails and what ought to be his role in creating a proactive and responsive government.
Of course, many people die on SA roads every day, as Mbalula callously pointed out. But to view such deaths as par for the course, as the minister seems to suggest, speaks volumes about how distant and indifferent he is to the struggles of ordinary people and the tragedy that can be a SA way of life for those who have few or no options.
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