The Road Traffic Management Corporation said minibus taxis and buses will receive special attention this week in a pre-festive season drive to ensure that public transport vehicles are roadworthy.
RTMC spokesperson, Simon Zwane, said traffic chiefs from all provinces and major metros decided at a special National Road Safety Steering Committee meeting recently that traffic officers will go out this week to ensure public transport vehicle with major defects are removed from the road.
He said these types of vehicles account for about 10% motor vehicles that are involved in fatal crashes on the South Africa roads.
“However the death toll from these vehicles is often high because of the number of people that they carry,” Zwane said.
He said that the meeting agreed on a festive season road safety law enforcement plan that the Minister of Transport Joe Maswanganyi will be launching on Saturday 2 November in Limpopo.
“Traffic chiefs said they will be adopting a “no-nonsense” approach to traffic law enforcement and public transport vehicles with smooth tyres, faulty lights and wipers will be removed from the roads. Drivers without driver’s licenses will also be stopped and prevented from proceeding to operate a vehicle,” Zwane said.
“It was also decided to clamp down on vehicles without number plates. A trend has been noticed where number plates are removed from motor vehicles to evade speed detection,” he added.
