Zoleka Mandela’s impassioned plea

by Jean Lowrie-Chin

#SlowDown!! After signing #slowdown pledge for Jamaica, Prime Minister Andrew Holness with Zoleka Mandela, granddaughter of former South African leader, Nelson Mandela and Ambassador for the Global Initiative for Child Health & Mobility.  They are flanked by (from left Saul Billingsley, FIA Foundation Executive Director; Earl Jarrett, Managing Director, Jamaica National Group; Paula Fletcher, Executive Director, National Road Safety Council (NRSC); Yohan Blake, Olympian; Dr Lucien Jones, Vice-Chairman, NRSC; Jean Todt, United Nations Special Envoy for road safety and Mark Connolly, UNICEF Jamaica representative.

As we heard the crack in Zoleka Mandela’s voice, describing her pain and the pain of other parents who have lost their children in road crashes, we pondered on the ‘why’ around the dangerous, careless behaviour on our roads.  We were gathered at the Office of the Prime Minister on May 10 for the observation of the UN Global Road Safety Week (GRSW), as Jamaica’s Chair for the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) is always the sitting Prime Minister. 

The NRSC was formed 24 years ago, when the late Orthopedic Surgeon Professor John Golding, became so distressed with the mounting deaths and serious injuries from road crashes that he appealed to then Prime Minister Michael Manley to start the organisation, comprised of stakeholders in road traffic oversight.  The NRSC formed an alliance with the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile – translated International Federation for Motor Vehicles) currently led by racing superstar Jean Todt.

 

The national convener Dr Lucien Jones has brought the passion of his Christian ministry to bear on his work with the NRSC; this combined with the business wizardry of Earl Jarrett resulted in the arrival on our shores of Ms Mandela and Mr Todt. They joined with Prime Minister Andrew Holness, UNICEF Jamaica Country Representative Mark Connolly and Road Safety Ambassador Yohan Blake in a special appeal to stop the madness on Jamaica’s roads, resulting in 115 deaths and many more seriously injured.

 

 “Worldwide, more young people are killed on the roads than from any other cause of death. Each day, 3000 children are killed or injured on the world’s roads,” said the regal Ms Mandela.

Zoleka Mandela with South Africa
 Charge d’Affaires for Jamaica, Philip Riley

“The scale of this crisis is bad enough. But what is perhaps even more shocking is how little is being done to prevent it. We have the solutions, but too often they are not being put in place.  The measures we need to save lives are simple: safe crossings for kids going to school; sidewalks to separate pedestrians and the vulnerable from vehicles; enforcement against drink driving; and action on speeding.

“Action on speed is the focus of this Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week and it is a great example of exactly what needs to be done. With effective policing and measures such as road humps and traffic calming we could save hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide each year.

“We’re facing a man-made epidemic and we have the vaccine – we’re just not using it. Can you imagine having a vaccine for a killer disease and not using it? Imagine leaving children to face illness or death and not acting. Yet this is really, what we are doing. In failing to use the low-speed vaccine around our schools, we are failing our children. It is their lives at stake.

“I’ve seen it in my own country. In my work with the Global Initiative for Child Health and Mobility we launched a project in one of South Africa’s poorest communities – Khayelitsha in Western Cape.”

Her words are familiar to our local situation: “In Khayelitsha you see the kids by the road each morning. Little ones, five and six year olds, with their brothers and sisters. Terrified to cross the road as the traffic bears down on them at 80 km/h.

“Early in the morning, you see them, trying to cross in the dark, taking their lives into their own hands. You don’t need to search too hard for what needs to be done. The answer is quite simple. Our children, our little ones, hundreds of them walking to school each day, should not face traffic at more than 30 km/h.”

“Faster than 30 is a death sentence,” she emphasised. “For the sake of our children, low speeds are non-negotiable. It’s not just my own country, the story I witnessed in Khayelitsha is one repeated each day around the world. Millions of children are facing this horror every single day and we are failing to protect them.”

Ms Mandela’s beautiful 13-year-old daughter Zenani Mandela was killed by a drunk driver in June 2010, and so she commented, “When the policies are not in place, it’s our families and our children that suffer.”

She evoked the courage of her grandfather: “I take inspiration in the life of my grandfather, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. We would all do well to listen to his words. We must not despair. We must not accept defeat. We must not forget that it is in our power to change the world”

In response, our Prime Minister Andrew Holness noted, “There is no amount of enforcement that is going to be as effective as behaviour change,” and urged the more frequent use of the Agent Sasco and Tessanne Chin road safety music video. He pledged, “We are committed to using all the utilities at our disposal to reduce road crashes by 50 percent by 2020.” He has been an engaged Chairman, and so we are optimistic.  Let’s do it – everyone can take the pledge to #slowdown and #savelives.  

Excerpt from Observer column published 15 May 2017