Acerca de las definiciones explícitas sobre el “delito”

In the recent times, many global research reports published regarding the state of RTA in all regions of the world, emphasised that Africa region remains the only region with the highest number of RTA in the world (IRTAD 1998; WHO 2009; WHO 2013; WHO African Region 2013). Additionally, in a research report published by the World Health Organisation-Africa Region in 2013 on the situation of the road accident in Africa; an overview of the report demonstrated the rate at which accidents occur on the African roads, and the quality of improvement implemented in reducing the negative effects of the roads on the public [road users] (WHO African Region 2013). The report further proclaimed that the issue of poor growth in the road safety system in Africa can be attributed to the inability of many African countries to provide sufficient data, and resources to facilitate feasible improvement in the RTAs. Due to this effect, many countries in Africa lack the capacity to stabilise the output of the transportation managements in charge of road transportation safety, in making reliable decisions to combat the incessant occurrence of RTAs.

Furthermore, the statistical information made available in the report showed that middle- income countries suffer greatly in the rise of RTA with 20.1 deaths per 100,000 population (WHO African Region 2013), which is considered the highest in 2013. In fact, among the middle-income countries falls South Africa as the 2nd _{highest in the road fatality rate in Africa} after Nigeria, with the highest fatality rates of 31.7 and 33.7 deaths per 100,000 population per year respectively as at 2013 (WHO African Region 2013). This is a serious issue that beckons for consistent improvement of the road safety policies guiding the use of the road, and the frequent monitoring of the affairs of the department in charge of the road transportation system in South Africa, in order to ensure safety of lives and properties. However, the public [road users] faulted the rise in the road accident fatality rate on several issues such as:

 Incompetence of some traffic officials –this factor incapacitates the effort of the local traffic department in charge of ensuring a consistent reportage of RTA (Joseph 2013).  Immoral behaviour of some traffic officials –this factor disenables the effort of acquiring the right information regarding a particular accident. On account of this, many accident cases are underreported or unreported.

 Inability of the RTMC to exert necessary strong leadership –this issue renders the lower units inefficient towards their allocated duties. The effect of this slackness or negligence have cost the management the inability to get the best performance out of these units through the execution of the allocated projects in accordance with the standard procedures established (Adams 2001).

 Lenience of the traffic management –this factor undermines the effort of the management from enacting strong traffic laws towards ensuring consistency in the road safety system. This permits the road users to abuse the use of the road infrastructures outrageously at the expense of their own safety.

 Decline involvement of the metros and municipalities –this issue limits the ability of the RTMC from acquiring more reliable results regarding the road traffic issues. And it also affects the ability of the local authorities to support the initiatives set by the provincial authorities in ensuring stable operational procedures.

 The poor handling of vehicle ownership –this hampers the ability of the local department to ascertain the number of the vehicles that are roadworthy, and thereby supports the capacity of the local department in reducing the volumes of traffics faced by the road users every day (O’ Day 1993).

 The poor legislative system –this allows the road users or public to violate the use of the road infrastructures to their own detriment.

 The poor handling of road accident data –this slows down the prospect of procuring adequate data required to support everyday activities like disbursement of resources, scheduling of duties, development of countermeasures to prevent accidents, and many more.

Even though, with the level of road mortality rate in South Africa, the country is still ranked among the middle-income countries in Africa with the advanced road safety systems. Regardless, one could envisage the reason behind the inconsistency in the accident reportage system in South Africa. In fact, the gravity of the issues highlighted above incapacitates the ability of the management to have uniform distribution of resources, funds and personnel to combat casualty in RTA in South Africa.

Actually, incessant occurrence of RTA on the South African roads has become the fear of the public, or the commuters plying the roads on a regular basis (Stats SA 2009; Stats SA 2010), despite a high number of good roads across the country. The annual increase in the number of casualties recorded in South Africa poses further threat to the health and economy of the country (Stats SA 2009). Moreover, in the course of lessening the effect of RTA on the public, South African government, through the Ministry of Transport [MoT] has suffered economic cost worth up to R133,000,000,000 [billion] annually as affirmed in the report published by SANRAL

in 2012, but recently risen above that amount from the R210,000,000,000 [billion] to R300,000,000,000 [billion] (SANRAL 2012). Literally, this affects the South African economy, among other sectors that demand more distribution of resources. Therefore, it requires drastic measures to avoid further deepen economic cost effect in the transportation sector. Besides, a suggested way to carry out the reformation exercise, is to improvement the quality of the road accident data collected, validated and processed at any local, provincial and national traffic departments within South Africa.