POLOKWANE – Traffic officials in and around the city spent their Youth Day by manning some roadblocks.
Drivers with outstanding warrants and fines were pulled over and either given harsher fines or had their vehicles confiscated.
The roadblocks are just a start to several operations that the Polokwane traffic department is planning to look at, making the city streets safer and bringing people with outstanding fines to book.
One of the motorists, Daniel Nkomo, told Review that he was glad to see that the department was finally doing something to get people with outstanding fines to pay up. “These people have fines, but never pay, meaning that they do not learn the lesson of driving too fast or ignoring traffic signals. It is these people who cause the death toll on the roads to rise and cause damage to other people’s vehicles,” he said.
The Polokwane Municipality could not be reached for comment by the time of going to print.
According to the provincial transport department, the roadblocks formed part of the National Road Traffic Act (NRTA) and were done to ensure compliance with the NRTA and to reduce road traffic accidents and injuries through intensified law enforcement operations. The programme also runs road safety education, regulates driving and vehicle licences, and sustains road infrastructure through overloading control.
