In this opinion article, Nomsa Modise, project manager: Socio Economic Development & Road Incident Management Systems writes about the agency’s efforts to make our roads safer through the power of partnerships.

Last month, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula released the first of the 2022 monthly road statistics, which reflected a 75% year-on-year increase in crashes on our roads. This spike comes as traffic steadily returns to pre-pandemic heights, and it underscores the scale of the road safety challenge we face in our country. As the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL), we believe the mission for safer roads is a shared one – it requires collaboration across all sectors of society.

An opinion article last year highlighted SANRAL’s commitment to the Safe System model for reducing serious injuries and fatalities on our roads. The model’s holistic approach rests on the principles of shared responsibility and collaboration – improving safety requires a range of stakeholders to work together in areas spanning policy, infrastructure, education, enforcement and more.

We know that road user behaviour – a key pillar of the Safe System model – contributes significantly to our road safety crisis. It was a factor behind 90% of crashes in the recent report released by Minister Mbalula. Addressing behavioural challenges such as distraction, substance abuse and failure to comply with the rules of the road again hinges on effective partnerships across government, industry, businesses and civil society. In the mission for safer roads, everyone is a stakeholder with an important role.

As South Africa’s national roads agency, SANRAL has a responsibility to seek out and leverage such partnerships to make our road network better and safer for everyone. Our efforts have allowed us to forge these important connections far and wide – from public organisations and private companies, including educational institutions, to global organisations.

Public-private partnerships

Public-private partnerships in the roads sector, or road concessions, have been on the rise across the globe due to their effectiveness in funding new infrastructure projects and improving the quality and safety of road networks.

Thanks to such concessions, three private-sector companies now manage and operate toll roads on some of our country’s busiest highways, using their resources and expertise to build, maintain and operate stretches of the road network for a 30-year concession period.

These partnerships don’t just assist in keeping South Africa’s toll roads in great shape and ensuring road users have access to safe, reliable and well-maintained roads. SANRAL’s concessionaire partners – Trans African Concessions (TRAC), N3 Toll Concession (N3TC) and Bakwena Platinum Corridor Concessionaire (Bakwena) – also play an important role within the communities adjacent to their areas of operation.

This community involvement includes various road safety initiatives and extensive education and awareness campaigns to promote a culture of road safety, especially among the youth. These projects are implemented in close collaboration with SANRAL, law enforcement authorities and various role players in the private sector.

Partnering beyond our borders

Cooperation on improving road safety extends beyond South Africa’s borders, too. SANRAL understands the benefits and opportunities that can come from the international community and its accumulated knowledge, experience and best practices. The Safe System is just one example of a best practice approach we’ve adopted by looking to our peers both regionally and globally. 

The recent COTO National Technical Committee sitting in Durban, hosted jointly by SANRAL, the Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (C-BRTA) and SADC member states, demonstrated such successful collaboration in action. Resolutions taken will establish a long-term multilateral engagement of regional experts in road safety and incident management on key modes of transportation and mobility.

We share a common vision for the safe use of our infrastructure and safe mobility of our communities. In addition to sharing best practices by governments and industries, and promoting tools such as road transport management systems, there is a strong focus on implementing skills development programmes that enhance road incident management.

SANRAL is also an active member of the Association of Southern African National Road Agencies (ASANRA), a grouping of national roads agencies or authorities in the SADC region working together to ensure the development of a safe, sustainable, efficient and effective road transport systems in support of social-economic growth and development in the SADC region.

Our membership in the World Road Association (PIARC), a global roads body that promotes international cooperation on issues related to roads and road transport, is also highly valued. Just recently, PIARC named Nazir Alli, SANRAL’s first CEO, as its president for 2021–2024. This puts SANRAL, and indeed South Africa as a whole, in a great position to take advantage of the knowledge sharing, skills transfer and innovation that the PIARC platform offers.

Partnering to grow skills

Making our roads safer means continually investing in improvements in the design, construction, maintenance and management of transportation infrastructure – and this requires SANRAL to support research and skills development in all aspects of road safety. Our collaborations with various research and educational institutions across South Africa are critical to this effort.

The new Engineering 4.0 facility, an initiative between SANRAL, the University of Pretoria, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and integrated forestry company York Timbers, is the very essence of the collaborative approach at work.

The facility houses a number of state-of-the-art laboratories and provides a space where students, academics, entrepreneurs and industry partners can work together to conduct scientific research, share expertise and harness new technologies. This is invaluable for creating a better, smarter road network and for improving the safety of all road users. 

As SANRAL looks to deepen its commitment to building safer roads, our openness to new and productive partnerships offers exciting potential – whether it’s in the gathering of data to better understand road user behaviour on our network or in cooperating with enforcement agencies to improve compliance with road rules.

It’s all part of our vision for better, safer roads.