MEC behind hard-hitting Operation Swara Tsotsi

Following his deployment as the MEC for Transport and Community Safety in May, Dickson Masemola is among the few political heads who hit the ground running, touching all the five districts of the province to rekindle the zeal of the staff, set the trajectory and also launched Operation Swara Tsotsi together with the Police in June.
The operation has thus far yielded 7 000 plus arrests. During an interview with Polokwane Observer on Monday, Masemola highlighted that the operation has seen tremendous success with arrests of 2 937 suspects in the first month. To date, more than 7 000 suspects have been arrested, he said. The operation was cascaded to two more districts being Vhembe and Sekhukhune and targeting the rest of the districts in due cause, he explained.
When outlining some of the activities he carried out in the first 100 days in office, Masemola revealed that he initiated a drive to look into the selling of expired and counterfeit goods together with the Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism in the interest of the good health of the people and few wholesalers were closed for selling expired goods. He recently led an operation together with the Police, members of the Defence Force as well as officials of the South African Revenue Services, Customs and Home Affairs in Musina border town where 373 suspects were arrested, Masemola indicated.
With stray animals causing road accidents in many parts of the province, his office is on a mission to introduce a law to harshly deal with those who fail to look after their livestock. He stated that he instructed that a team of legally exposed officials in the department be tasked with the development of a draft that should be taken to the Portfolio Committee on Transport within a period of seven months.
“As we are trying to increase visibility of traffic officials on the road, we are going to appoint all 238 learners who graduated from the Traffic Training College on a fulltime basis with effect from 1 December. Having re-affirmed the department as a 47% contributor to the revenue of the province, I challenged the officials to innovate ways through which that mark can be surpassed, which include structuring an incentive for currently owing infringers with a time period beyond which an aggressive approach will be introduced, where infringer may be even visited in their homes for collection or arrest,” Masemola explained.
He further urged residents to join forces with law enforcement agencies to fight crime and curb road fatalities in Limpopo. Masemola said he was looking forward to a Limpopo characterised by peace, tranquillity and fairness where people live without fear. He added that criminals must not have space in communities but rather be on the run at all times.

Story/photo: ENDY SENYATSI
>>endy@observer.co.za