Road Accident Fund leads road safety awareness drive in Welkom, Virginia

The Road Accident Fund (RAF) takes its Driver Wellness Programme to Virginia and Welkom from Monday, August 14 – 18, 2023.

This programme is aimed at not only reducing the RAF’s annual liabilities of R40 billion, but to also increase road safety by ensuring drivers are in good health.

Their bus has been converted into a mobile clinic which has a dispensing nurse and an optometrist. The bus offers free health checks as well as spectacle prescriptions in the spot, at no cost to the drivers.

According to the RAF road safety manager, Thabo Makwela, in its first two days, 105 taxi drivers received health checks. 

“We also issued 16 spectacles to drivers who were visually impaired, and nine more referred to public hospitals for further examinations,” said Makwela.

RAF introduced the Driver Wellness Programme after statistics showed commercial and public transport drivers posed a greater risk to mass accidents.

To make this great initiative possible, the RAF partnered up with the Health Foundation of South Africa (HFSA). Together, the pair has created three temporary jobs through the national programme that has been running since last year, October. 

“To ensure efficiency, there are daily and monthly targets to be met by trio. So far the team has been exceeding their targets by significant margins,” added Makwela.

In an interview with Kasi Voice News, the road safety manager could not disclose how much the budget of the programme is, but assured that every cent was accounted for. 

“All funds are regulated by our partner, HFSA, as well as the our Corporate Social Responsibility office,” concluded Makwela.