Road safety plans are in place for the festive season in Limpopo, with the department of Transport and Community Safety’s ‘Operation Ndadzi’ in full swing.
Following weeks of deadly accidents on the province’s major routes, the past two weeks have seen less carnage on the roads.
The department credits this to ‘Operation Ndadzi’, Ndadzi is a TshiVenda word that translates to thunder in English.
The operation was launched at the beginning of the month with an aim to improve safety on the roads.
The department says, “As compared to the 3011 vehicles stopped in weekend of 10th to 12th November 2017, this weekend we have tripled the number of vehicles that were stopped and checked from Friday 17th to 19th November making it 9578 in total.”
“Our pledge is to ensure safety on the roads, we will continue to demonstrate zero tolerance to violations of rules,” says MEC of Transport & Community Safety, Makoma Makhurupetje.
Makhurupetje spoke after records showed that the number of arrests made on the weekend of 17th to 19th November 2017, has doubled from 20 in the previous weekend to 41.
The MEC has commended provincial traffic officers who arrested two motorists after they tried to bribe them over the weekend.
The statistics from the Medical Research Council and South African Police Service for 2016/17 reveals a worrying picture, with 58% of road death being alcohol-related and 75034 (208 per day) drivers were found to be driving under the influence of alcohol in 2016/17, which is a significant increase when compared to 48338 in 2006/7. “It is against this background that our traffic officers will make it their business to arrest those who are found driving under the influence, we have arrested 11 of them with two speedsters and 25 others who already had warrants of arrests for previous summons,” concludes Makhurupetje.
