The Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) has appealed to the country’s municipalities to fix roads before the rainy season worsen in order to reduce accidents caused by potholes.
RTIA’s director, Jacob Mmekwa, said this during the Commemoration of the World Day of Remembrance for road and traffic victims in Alabama outside Klerksdorp on Sunday.
Mmekwa said big potholes that worsen when it rains were some of the contributing factors to the high number of deadly car accidents.
He said in South Africa there were close to 14 000 fatalities that occur on the roads annually, rounding up the number of people who die daily to 38.
“We cannot talk just in terms of numbers or statistics, we need to talk about it as people who have fallen down as a result of a behaviour of us as drivers on the road,” he said.
Mmekwa said government has ensured that municipalities are adequately funded to maintain roads.
“We are making sure that budget is allocated for roads to be improved and we are also working with Sanral for the national roads to be improved.
“We have made sure that the signage is available for people to see the speed limit in order for them to say ‘I cannot go beyond the allocated limit’. Ee have done that, we have done our part,” said Mmekwa.
He expressed concern about the state of roads.
“During the rainy season in certain cases you find that the potholes become exacerbated.
“We are making sure that the allocated budget is used exactly for that and not for something else because you cannot say that you want to save lives on roads that have got potholes like dams,” he said .
RTIA started the day with a prayer at a traffic circle in Extension two in Alabama on the N12 where gruesome accidents had been recorded.
The commemoration for road accident victims was also held in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape.
