South Africa will reduce road fatalities by 50% by 2020 as per the Decade of Action for Road Safety

Due to my fellow opponent failing to provide definitions. I will proceed to providing definitions for this debate: Reduce:Make smaller or less in amount, degree, or size. Fatalities:An occurrence of death by accident, in war, or from disease, in this case "by accident". Moving on to my argument. Before one can go about agreeing with the motion at hand one needs to consider the five main pillars of "the decade o action for road safety" which are the drivers of this campaign. The pillars are; 1.Improving road safety management 2.Safer roads 3.Safer vehicles 4.Safer road users 5.Improving post crash care General public, having mentioned this one needs to look at South Africa and their current stance under the above-mentioned pillars. General public,it is no secret that a lot of corruption has been taking place South Africa. Thus i will look at Corruption and traffic enforcement; The effect of corruption is not only a loss of state revenue. When corrupt officials allow motorists who speed, or who are driving vehicles that are not roadworthy, to proceed with their journey, the consequences for other road users are potentially disastrous. A breakdown in public trust of the integrity of traffic officials is also likely to result in an increase in lawlessness among road users. Studies on crime in South Africa revealed that corruption was most evident in encounters with traffic officials, followed by the police, and then during interactions with officials over employment opportunities. This support the perception that corruption is a problem in local government traffic departments, municipal police services and the SAPS, and highlights the discretionary power of some of these officials. For example, the public largely interacts with traffic officials on the road where the actions of corrupt officials are difficult to monitor. Furthermore we need to look at how corruption manifest in the field of traffic enforcement and road safety; 1.Bribes are often demanded in situations where road users have committed an offence such as speeding, overloading, or driving unlicensed or unroadworthy vehicles. Bribery in these instances may be used to ensure that the offender escapes a stiffer penalty (i.e. a R100 bribe is requested when the alternative is to pay a legitimate fine of double that amount).The most commonly paid bribe was for traffic fines, driver testing and licensing irregularities. 2.Certificates of roadworthiness are issued without the said vehicles undergoing the necessary roadworthy tests. 3. Money is received in return for assisting applicants for learners licence tests to cheat in their exams. 4.Car sellers often attempt to bribe examiners to overlook a certain component or else to push through a marginal case. 5.Car sellers often try to buy "paper" certificates. That is, a certificate provided without testing or examining the vehicle at all. 6.Car sellers will sometimes put testing stations under pressure if they do not pass their vehicle then they will take the business elsewhere. 7.If a vehicle fails a roadworthy test, the client often takes the vehicle to another testing station where they know the test is less strict. 8.A vehicle might be checked and (correctly) passed, only for some of the components to be switched before the vehicle is sold. The seller shows the prospective buyer the certificate and a deal is made on that evidence. The tyres, for example, may have been swapped with worn tyres after the test. 9.Each vehicle examiner has an examiner's code that appears on the examination sheet. Unscrupulous examiners will sometimes use another examiners code and name when passing non-roadworthy vehicles. This above-mentioned reality makes it impossible for South Africa to reduce fatalities by 50% by 2020 as per decade of action for road safety as these realities undermine the pillars that drive this campaign. And yes one cannot deny the fact that there are initiatives in place to make the decade of action a success But with the above-mentioned how will these initiatives become successful if the above-mentioned is not addressed. And general public, with this statement made, I am not being negative but realistic.