MPIMPA
Hotline
The government and
its law enforcement agencies can not effectively solve or address the
problem of crime, including road traffic criminal acts, without the active
participation of the road users and the general public. To facilitate the
implementation of an effective road safety strategy, we need the
involvement of all the relevant stakeholders – motorists, taxi/bus owners
and drivers, the pedestrians, passengers, etc. Road Safety is
everybody’s responsibility. Countries who have a successful road safety
record have a saying that road safety is not what you do to people but what
you do with people. To garner this joint responsibility an easy to
implement tool is required. The use of telephony will enable all
stakeholders to effectively take responsibility about road safety issues.
Hence the Mpimpa
Hotline. It is a vehicle to effectively drive active stakeholder
participation. The anonymity of the caller is guaranteed. Only designated
individuals have access to the recorded information. These individuals must
sign a non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement.
The KwaZulu-Natal
Department of Transport has run a campaign with the theme "Road
Safety is everybody’s responsibility 24/7/365" (24 hours, 7 days a
week, and 365 days a year – around the clock).
The objective was to
make all road users aware that, at the end of the day the responsibility to
reduce the rate of road collisions should not be borne by the Government
alone. In fact what the authorities are trying to do with road safety
campaigns is to protect the road users from endangering their own lives.
The State spends enormous resources – traffic officers, education
campaigns, etc – to protect us from hurting and maiming ourselves.
In the United
Kingdom a similar approach to highlighting where the responsibility lies is
known as the "Think" campaign. Road users must stop and reflect
on why they should refrain from breaking road safety rules.
During the 2002
Festive season the general consensus by commentators about the unacceptably
high rates of fatalities was that enforcement is a challenge that needs to
be overcome to help improve driver behaviour. The Government alone can
never possess enough resources to fully address the enforcement challenge.
The general mindset of a road user is to observe the rules when s/he see,
expects to see or be seen by a traffic officer.
The Mpimpa Hotline
aims to create millions of "volunteer" traffic officers in the
form of all road users – the pedestrians, passengers and motorists – to act
together in unison and overcome the challenges posted by unbecoming road
usage behaviour. Suddenly every bad driver will be conscious of the fact
that the changes of being seen have multiplied immensely, because it is
every road user’s responsibility (24/7/365) to help stop the carnage on our
roads. Every road user has the means to pull bad drivers off the road.
With Mpimpa Hotline,
the ordinary road user is now empowered to do something – in line with the
Government’s volunteerism request – and help reduce the rate of collisions
on our roads. Those who misbehave must know that someone is watching and
s/he will take action, because all the law abiding road users are sick and
tired of bad drivers.
Why the "Mpimpa" name?
During the struggle
days the State (the minority government) used to plant informers among the
masses. The sole aims of these "impimpis" (informers) was to
gather information about political activities of the oppressed, and feed
back to the Government of the day.
In the new South
Africa everyone is confronted with a new form of oppression (criminals and
general lawlessness) by a new form of an oppressive minority government
(the criminals who kills our people in their homes, on the roads and
everywhere). The government of the day cannot be omnipresent. It needs the
ears and eyes of the oppressed masses to overcome road related serious offenses.
The modern day, new
South Africa’s "impimpis" are a critical war arsenal to fight the
new form of oppression by a minority government by criminals. A minority
government by criminals who make life hell for law-abiding citizens on our
roads.
A concerned road
user calls the Mpimpa Hotline and reports an incident – any serious road offense. Hit and run, overloading, somebody driving without a valid
driver’s license, drive a car without an RWC (roadworthy certificate), taxi
wars and the perpetrators, etc. The general public has a facility conducive
to creating an environment unfriendly to criminals and their dastardly
deeds.
The call is captured
and recorded.
- The
Hotline
The current Hotline
– 086
221 1010 . The line is paid for in order
to discourage crank calls. Research results reveal that over 50% of all
calls to the toll free numbers and the emergency police number 10111 are
from kids and other adults with objectives other than what the toll free
number was set up to achieve. The Hotline will be live for 24 hours per
day. The Road Safety Directorate from 07h00 to 16h00 will man the line
during normal working days. It will be diverted to the call center during
any other time.
Every call will be
recorded for reference purposes.
- Database
Monitoring and Management
·
Data capture and computer programming. The incoming calls will be
captured on the computer using an appropriate program. The program will
capture the details – telephone number, postal address, car registration number,
generate a reference number, time the call was received, the nature of the offense, place of the offense, etc.
·
Data classification. The nature and seriousness of the offense
should be established upfront to automatically determine the nature of the
corrective action required. For example, a hit and run incident is a police
matter needing drastic action whereas failing to stop at a stop sign is a
less serious (misdemeanor) matter which might only require a letter from
the Department to make the offender aware the he/she is being watched by
fellow road users. The offenses will be classified in many ways using
letters of the alphabet and numerals.
·
Cross-referencing. This facility will enable the system to monitor
the frequency a certain driver and registered car commits serious offenses
and misdemeanors. Appropriate action should be established in consultation
with the appropriate enforcement agencies.
- Media
Campaign
To build top of mind
awareness, a comprehensive campaign to re-launch Mpimpa will break on 9
April to run until 9 may 2003. The main media activities have been planned
as follows:
·
Ukhozi FM with over 6.0 million listeners
·
East Coast Radio with around 1.2 million
·
Community Radio stations
·
P4 Radio with around 445 000 listeners
·
10 mobile billboards strategically placed.
The abovementioned
radio stations have been requested to actively support the campaign (value
adding) by stimulating debate among their listeners/audiences to sincerely
embrace the aims and objectives of reporting wrong doers on our roads.
The solution to a
reduced road carnage lies with all road users. Not the Government alone.
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