RTMC’s costly talk shop misses the mark

“What were they thinking?” would be a logical reaction to the news that the cash-strapped Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) plans to spend R2 million on a four-day youth road safety debate at what critics say is “an entirely inappropriate venue for teenagers”.

But that question would be redundant, because state-owned entities like the RTMC – which survive on taxpayer handouts but pretend they are run on business lines – seldom think at all, beyond keeping their personal executive gravy train on track.

Hosting a traffic safety chinwag for high school pupils and their minders at a luxury hotel – which features not only a casino, but also multiple ways to enjoy booze – is insane.

That’s not in the least because drunken driving is a major cause of death on our bloody roads.

Sure, maybe the youngsters will be kept away from alcohol, but why could the gathering have not been held at a completely “dry” venue?

How much of an impact is this little event going to have anyway?

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Most of those attending probably don’t have driver’s licences and could probably benefit far more from proper road safety awareness training.

Perhaps the “chiefs” who run the RTMC need this “achievement” to stroke their egos, while they draw their multimillion-rand annual salaries.

Or to ease their consciences for having fired some lowly paid cleaners at their headquarters as a way to cut costs.

The cash crunch is indicative of an organisation which is, at the minimum, being mismanaged, while malfeasance has yet to be ruled out.

When it comes to road safety, this government has failed badly. The body counts rise each year. Law enforcement gets worse as traffic officers take more bribes than they issue tickets. And the number of “bought” licences spirals.

Fix the corruption before having meaningless talk shops in inappropriate places.

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