The deadly problem on South Africa’s roads

Despite many promises, the government has failed to move freight from road to rail, resulting in an overwhelming presence of trucks on South Africa’s roads, causing heavy traffic and fatal accidents.

This is according to the United National Transport Union (UNTU), which said that the Department of Transport is “ignoring the severe congestion and chaos caused by the ever-growing volume of trucks on South Africa’s roads.”

The most recent example of a mass tragedy due to trucks was on 1 December, when five people died in a multi-vehicle collision involving two trucks and one vehicle. The crash occurred on the N10 in the Eastern Cape, between Cookhouse and Gqeberha.

The union said this is just the latest incident in a long-running critical problem on South African roads.

“According to a 2023 Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) report, there were 2,237 fatal truck crashes involving more than 3,000 trucks over five years,” said UNTU.

“This equates to at least one fatal crash involving a truck every single day.”

The union said that Transport Minister Barbara Creecy’s new festive road safety campaign ignores the elephant in the room.

Creecy’s recently launched 365-day Arrive Alive campaign’s theme is “It starts with me”, encouraging all motorists to take responsibility for their own safety on the road, as well as that of others.

“Crashes involving trucks result in a higher number of fatalities per incident than any other vehicle type. UNTU is almost certain that these figures have increased, as trucks continue to dominate our roads,” the union said.

UNTU added that the government spends millions every year repairing roads that are not designed to sustain this level of heavy freight traffic.

The most dangerous roads in the world

The Department, according to UNTU, has made several promises to move heavy freight traffic to Transnet’s railways, but UNTU said that it has not seen any real progress.

“While Transnet and the Department of Transport frequently reference plans to restore the rail system, there has been insufficient emphasis on protecting the infrastructure itself,” UNTU said.

The rail network is exposed to criminal syndicates that strip cables, vandalise signalling systems, remove overhead lines, and cut rail tracks in acts of blatant sabotage. Without securing the network, UNTU warns, rail recovery will remain impossible.

The Department of Transport has a goal of moving 250 million tonnes of freight on rail by 2030.

The Department of Transport acknowledged the severity of this crisis in the Freight Logistics System Roadmap in 2023.

“As the rail sector has failed to keep up with growth in the South African economy, what has instead occurred is a massive shift from rail to road. More than a quarter of long-distance freight traffic has shifted to road in the past five years,” the department said.

“There has been large, sustained growth in the country’s truck fleet over the last fifteen years, while over the same period, the number of locomotives has decreased by a third.”

The department said that passenger vehicles are only responsible for about 1% of the country’s road damage; the rest is caused by trucks.

The union said the majority of fatal accidents involving trucks happen in KwaZulu-Natal, specifically on the N3 between Johannesburg and Durban.

South Africa as a whole, however, was ranked as the most dangerous country to drive in for the last two consecutive years, according to The World’s Safest Roads.

The country experiences 24.5 road traffic deaths per 100,000 people.