EDITORIAL | Too much cargo on our roads makes them crowded and dangerous

The death toll on South African roads this past festive season was down on the previous year. By a mere 1.7% but a decline nevertheless, and for that we are relieved.

The news is especially welcome given that those travelling by road are required to navigate an increasingly ailing road network system and a growing army of trucks.

Anyone who has driven along the N3 between Johannesburg and Durban around Christmas can attest to the nerves of steel required to manoeuvre around a convoy of 18-wheelers. Add to that the reckless and drunk driving that many South African motorists are partial to, and a family holiday by road can at times feel like a suicide mission.

Transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga on Wednesday said 1,427 people died on the roads between December 1 and January 11 2024, which was 25 fewer than in the previous year.

There were 1,184 fatal crashes — a 2.3% decline from 1,212 in the previous festive season. Most of those who died were aged 25 to 44, most of them males, and 40.9% were pedestrians. Most crashes occurred between December 1 and 5 and between 7pm and 10pm. Human factors contributed to more than 80% of crashes, Chikunga said.

South Africans have a reputation for bad driving. Most recently, we topped the list of an Australian study published last year on the world’s worst drivers, which compared fatal car crash statistics from 20 countries.

But our challenges are not only alcohol and irresponsible driving. For most South Africans there are few, if any, travel options that don’t involve roads.

South Africa’s long-distance rail system is largely unusable thanks to the rampant pillaging of metal and copper wire from tracks. Despite its best intentions, Prasa’s much-awaited relaunch of passenger trains between Johannesburg and Durban, Cape Town and East London in December was a failure.

The inaugural train to Cape Town got as far as Wellington before a damaged track brought it to a halt. Passengers had to be bused the rest of the way. By the end of December, the route had been suspended. The Durban route has not fared much better, though it is still operational. The Sunday Times took a trip to the coast in December and it took more than 30 hours. The return trip took 21 hours to Newcastle, before buses arrived to ferry fed-up passengers to Johannesburg.

The only other option, air travel, is unaffordable for most middle-class South Africans, especially if the children are tagging along.

A survey by Flight Centre found that the average domestic ticket price is up 33% on 2019, though down 15% on the previous year. International air travel is up 25% on 2019 but flat compared with the previous year.

But even with the slight decrease in domestic prices, air travel remains firmly out of reach for most local holiday travellers. It is for the elite.

Perhaps the small drop in our latest festive season deaths has less to do with better driving and more to do with our subdued economy keeping many people at home for the holidays. The fear of polluted beaches also stopped some “Vaalies” from heading for KwaZulu-Natal (the province recorded a lacklustre tourism season).

But no doubt the state of our roads will also have been a contributing factor when deciding to travel this past festive season — if not the potholes then the sheer volume of trucks that have taken over our tarmac.

They are transporting everything from food to cars to coal — all items that should travel by rail but now have to jostle for space among itinerant families on our national roads due to government’s inability to stop thieves digging up our railway tracks.

Fixing South Africa’s railway network is a daunting task that requires ultimate commitment, iron will and discipline — and billions of rand. But imagine for a moment how it would transform the face of domestic travel in South Africa. It would be a total game-changer, with so many knock-on effects not least of all which would be a tourism boom and an economic revival.