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Transport MEC launches Festive Season Road Safety Campaign

Limpopo MEC for Transport and Community Safety, Florence Radzilani, launched the 2023 Festive Season Road Safety Campaign in Ga-Mamaila in the Greater Letaba Municipality.

The Mopani district counts among the busiest regions in the province because of the R36, R40, R81, R578, and R71 roads that run through the district. “For this launch, we partnered with ‘Magoshi a rena’, and our local and district municipalities to honour our commitment to communities and traditional leadership,” she said. “One of the contributing factors to the high volumes of accidents on our roads is the presence of stray domestic animals causing accidents,” she said.

She appealed to owners of domestic animals to ensure that they look after them and keep them off the roads. She said statistics indicate that pedestrians are mostly the victims of accidents in the Mopani district. “We have lost a total of 199 lives in Mopani during 2022/23 and it is our prayer, that this number should be reduced.” She said most of these were recorded as hit-and-run accidents as motorists do not stop after a collision.

Also read: Avoid becoming a target of criminals and scammers this festive season

“It is our wish as government that the number of road fatalities would drastically diminish during this period. We appeal that motorists adhere to traffic regulations and drive within the speed limit,” she said. She also referred to hitchhikers being robbed of their belongings and urged travellers to use permissible forms of public transport such as buses and taxis.

She warned those driving under the influence of alcohol. “Because of its effect on drivers’ capability to make certain judgements, most drivers tend to overtake dangerously, drive over the speed limit and ignore other road rules when under the influence. “It is for this reason, that a great part of our festive season operations will place additional attention on alcohol consumption,” she concluded.

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Anwen Mojela

Anwen Mojela is a journalist at the Letaba Herald. She graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Journalism at the Tshwane University of Technology. Including an internship and freelancing, Anwen has four years’ experience in the field and has been a permanent name in the Herald for nearly three years. Anwen’s career highlights include a water corruption investigative story when she was an intern and delving into wildlife and nature conservation. “I became a journalist mainly to be the voice of the voiceless, especially working for a community newspaper. Helping with the bit that I can, makes choosing journalism worth it.

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