Through the Road Ethics Project (REP) Road Heroes Award, renamed in honour of our late co-founder Thami Radebe, an individual from any walk of life is recognised for their dedicated and visible effort to the road safety cause, assisting people affected by road crashes or showing leadership in reducing road traffic injuries, disabilities and deaths. REP is delighted to announce our 2025 winner: Zwelethu ‘Zweli’ Mazibuko.
Mazibuko is the co-director of The Safety Drive – an initiative he started where he used his personal story of being involved in a serious car crash to motivate change in others. He was nominated by his co-director Thandiwe McCloy, who felt that the effort he puts into sharing his story as a road crash survivor – and the impact this has on his audiences – deserves recognition.
There was overwhelming support in the naming of Zweli as winner of the award. This support comes from a a diverse group and more than one panellist named him as their stand-out nominee. REP was impressed by how he uses his firsthand experience of a road crash and its consequences to foster insight into how dangerous our roads can be.
Through his courageous and vulnerable sharing of his experience and the practitioners and services that have helped him, he empowers people with knowledge. His story is highly relatable for other crash survivors, their families and everyone who has lost someone on the roads. It takes courage to tell one’s story publicly and, with Thandiwe’s support as a media engagement expert, his message spreads more widely every day.
Described by Thandiwe as ‘an eternal instant,’ the collision which almost killed Zweli in August 2008 and left him comatose for many weeks, led to permanent and life-changing consequences – medically, socially, financially and professionally. Zweli explains that from feeling that the world was his oyster before his crash (as a soon-to-be married, sports anchor for eNCA and team member at PriMedia Education), he instead lost much of what he held dear in an instant. This included some of his memories, his fiancée and many friends walked out of his life, and his own difficulty accepting his state of disability.
His family stuck by him throughout, however, and he credits his father with saving his life more than once through his determination, his faith and his knowledge from long-ago medical studies before becoming a teacher. Zweli notes that all these years later he is still in a state of recovery, with his devastating physical injuries exacerbated by serious psychological challenges and leading to health conditions (diabetes and epilepsy) which he will have to manage lifelong.
We are struck by how Zweli’s account of what he has gone through serves as a wake-up call. It reminds people how vulnerable we are to injury when violent physical forces, high velocities and heavy objects are involved. He also emphasises the ethical obligations we have to ourselves, our loved ones and fellow road users to minimise harm on South Africa’s roads – for example, by not speeding, not driving drunk and not being a distracted driver or pedestrian. He believes that our government is not doing enough to curb lawlessness. His views are very much in line with the Road Ethics Project’s focus on Vision Zero and the Safe System approach.
Zweli tells us that even before his own crash he experienced the terrible price of South Africa’s road carnage, having lost his aunt and two friends (one from school, one from university) to crashes. He feels a sense of duty to help prevent others going through similar experiences and knows that if his message saves even one life he has succeeded.
Linked to this, Zweli and Thandiwe are participants in ProjectEDWARD-SA, a civil society collaboration and part of a global movement striving towards the target of Every.Day.Without.A.Road.Death. Asked what magic wand he would wave to change the road safety picture in South Africa, Zweli talks about the need for safer, more affordable public transport systems in a country where so many walk and travel via minibus taxis.
He also mentions the need for a driving license process which makes people truly safe and ready to drive – especially in the hazardous conditions we currently face – rather than just training along the lines of a system that needs to be updated. His key ethos is that drivers can’t just drive for themselves but MUST drive in a way that keeps others safe.
He ends by expressing appreciation for the 2025 Thami Radebe Road Heroes Award and how it will help amplify his story. Zwelethu receives a certificate, cheque for R5 000 from the Road Ethics Project and immortalisation in the REP Road Hero Awards records.
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