By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga says a number of accidents that occurred during the past weekend have been influenced by a number of issues such as speed and alcohol.
Chikunga was speaking to the media at the Marrianhill Toll Plaza in Durban on Monday morning, visiting a roadblock as travellers make their way back home.
The Minister says her department does not expect a decreases in accidents in comparison to last year’s Easter holiday.
“The accidents that have occurred place us not to expect any decrease this time around. Provinces such as Gauteng, Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal are not recording any decrease in terms of fatalities.
“We are not releasing the stats but we are looking at the trends of what is happening. Many of the padestrians were knocked down by cars in residential areas, towns and cities and this is becoming a serious challenge for our resources and the human capital that we have”.
Chikunga says motorists become negligent when they are drunk.
“There’s quite a number of them who are drinking and driving in residential areas. We saw it so, we thought that since this is the Easter weekend and end of the month that means that people have got money, they got paid, they will buy alcohol and travel and then they will drive, that will increase the number of accidents.”
She says her department is not at the mercy of any vehicles that are not roadworthy.
“This morning alone, we’ve already removed from the road 21 taxis and many of them were unroadworthy.
“They did not have operating permits, drivers with no driving licenses, without brakes so we just removed that taxi from the road and allowed them to call another taxi to come and take the passengers so that they can continue with their trip.”
Meanwhile, the Border Management Authority (BMA) says it has completed the first phase of its Easter weekend operations, which is the exit leg.
The Easter holidays often keep the BMA very busy, as thousands of people travel in and out of the country and across provinces for the long weekend.
BMA commissioner Michael Masiapato says they have successfully processed all the travellers exiting South Africa.