Analyse the statistics and C – Y (Inevitable Road Rage in 'Slaap Stad')

I recently received an article written by the ‘illustrious’ Steve Hofmeyer (an Afrikaans entertainer,  loved by a small few, who has a habit of putting his foot in his mouth at times).  Naturally this is not something I necessarily have a problem with, unless of course it’s trite, which is very often is.  Nevertheless, this particular article apparently got him into some trouble for being racist, although I'm not entirely sure it wasn't all a rather poorly orchestrated publicity stunt.  However there was an interesting angle in what he appeared to mean by the article in saying that, ‘South African women are more likely to be murdered by their husbands and partners, but [that] this does not hold true for white South African Women’.

It is a well-known fact that more than 85% of murders in South Africa are domestically based, or involve parties who know one another.  Interesting and rather refreshing one might argue, though it may cause some trust issues amongst spouses.  But where I do come to Mr. Hofmeyer’s defence, purely as a strategist you understand, is the fact that very often it is the analysis of statistical data that can paint a very clear and concise picture and yet is often hidden from the public eye in case it upsets some folk.  More importantly however, this analysis could provide the foundations upon which to build a very focused and relevant set of objectives followed by appropriate and practical strategies in order to either improve or neutralise the issue at hand, whatever it may be.

Another favourite example of mine is the road accident statistics, where these rather nebulous figures are fed to us as if we were a cluster of mushrooms living in a dark closet.  Although I wish to make it clear that I have absolutely nothing against men (or women) who live in closets, if they so choose, most of us have more insight from our day to day experience than peering through a tiny key hole for the bits of selective light thrown at us by officials.  In each province in South Africa there are obvious transgressors of the laws of the road.  In Gauteng, the most obvious ones are mini-bus taxi drivers, although most folk appear to have adopted the attitude of ‘well if they can get away with it, then so will I’, as they accelerate long after the robot (stop light) has turned orange or even red, as a form of aggressive arrogance or ignorance perhaps.  However on the whole, the most obvious transgressors appear to be those damn taxi drivers.  So then why is that?  Is it the way taxi drivers are incentivised, or trained, or simply because mini-bus taxis are more obvious to spot and therefore a form of slanted research sample, just as most people who complain about aggressive driving refer to BMW drivers in particular?  Perhaps this is because BMW’s allow for fast acceleration and agility like no other relatively mass produced vehicle, and therefore these drivers get annoyed by slow, aimless traffic hogging the right hand lane?  Then again, are aggressive people drawn to the aggressive looking grill of the BMW perhaps, as opposed to the ‘where the hell are we vacant look of a Hyundai’ or the  'where did you say you put that carrot' look Porsche, or are we all just discriminators of a different sort?  

By blaming taxi drivers, is without doubt pointing at a particular demographic and even sex, but is that really the intent, I doubt it.  After all majority of black, male drivers aren't taxi drivers.  Is it therefore racist to generalise about BMW drivers, even if the aggressive driving generalisation may have some truth in it?  Assuming of course that vehicle makes could be constituted along racial lines, that is.  I'm sure the majority of BMW drivers happen to be white males.

It may be equally true therefore that the slow, aimless vehicles are very often driven by people who can’t afford to have theirs serviced regularly, belching smoke from their exhaust pipes as they splutter along the road, or people who lack any sense of urgency and ambition, or even little old ladies chatting to their bridge partners perhaps?  Again I have nothing against bridge playing little old ladies, but ‘the youthfully challenged’ can be a liability on the road, and this includes little old men.  Hence the reason for countries like Canada insisting upon retesting for licenses from the age of 50 every few years.  I know I may regret this in time. My grandmother, aged 82 and still driving in Johannesburg at the time (rather badly I might add), when challenged by one of her granddaughters made the following comment that still sits uneasily with me to this day, she said puffing her chest out, “In all the 64 years I've been driving, I've never had one accident.”  Then after a short pause, “..I just don’t know how many I've caused”, and then proceeded to giggle wickedly to herself.

Having lived in Johannesburg, Natal, London, Toronto and driven in most countries of Europe, particularly Italy and France on many an occasion, as well Australia and the USA, Cape Townians are undoubtedly the worst drivers in the world.  However it’s not the arrogance and aggression shown by Gauteng and Jo’burg drivers in particular, here it’s what I believe is perfectly summed up by the Afrikaans term ‘vaakheid’.  ‘Vaak’ means to be in another world, daydreaming or just simply switched off, though their cell phones aren’t always.  The number of people who run red traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, who hog the right hand lane or simply change lanes without even a glance into a mirror (assuming the mirror is actually not angled towards the driver’s face of course), non-existent side mirrors, and god forbid the effort to toggle an indicator, are quite simply just ‘vaak’.  As much as I love Cape Town for its sleepiness, being the antithesis of hustle and bustle, the driving aspect has me in a mild form of daily road rage.  It is the reason why switched on Cape Townians don’t generally let their kids ride bicycles to school. 

Most interesting to me however is that there is a rather clear observation which one can make day in and day out.  So much so, that it makes one wonder if there’s a concerted effort to find the causes rather than the merely the symptoms  thereof, and that is the drivers who transgress the laws on the road more than any other appear to be drivers from a particular area and group of suburbs in Northern Cape Town.  I’m talking about drivers with ‘CY’ and ‘CF’ number plates in particular.  Now I know that this is going to lead to some gnashing of teeth and comments of ‘generalisation!’ especially amongst the few good mates I have who happen to have these number plates.  Of course I'm not suggesting that everyone is lawless in this case, but it certainly seems to me to be a very clear cut statistic, purely based upon 16 years of neutral observation, and this despite the number of such number plates in greater Cape Town being far fewer than the dominant ‘CA’ plates.  Even my sons have made a bit of a game of it, when someone does something foolish or unpredictable on the road one of them will shout, ‘what do you know – CY’, purely because it inevitably is.

So what does this all say and how does this tie in with Mr Hofmeyer’s comment regarding murder statistics above?  Well, quite simply that statistics need to be used to narrow down important information in order to take appropriate, cost effective, targeted action that’s all.  No matter how uncomfortable the information may appear at first.  Not to point fingers, but to focus the resources (financial and human) on the areas in which this lawlessness appears to stem or be particularly rife.  I have no doubt that there is something rather odd going on in so far as drivers licenses being issued, testing being undertaken, driving lessons being dished out or all of the above in the area of ‘CY’.  I don’t even know exactly which suburbs make up these licensing districts, but there is no doubt that many elements there are giving the entire lot of drivers with such number plates a very bad rap indeed.  Perhaps it’s now time to investigate the root cause of the problems without worrying about being politically correct!