Bethal Weighbridge officially unveiled

BETHAL – Executive Mayor of Govan Mbeki Municipality, Ms Lindi Masina officially opened the Bethal Weighbridge on behalf of MEC for Safety and Security, Mr Vusi Shongwe on Friday, 17 June.

The weighbridge will monitor and deal with overloaded vehicles travelling on the N17 highway to deliver goods such as coal, to various destinations.

This is a project that was implemented within 44 months and benefitted 215 local community members with job opportunities.

Among them, 118 were youths.

Others were skilled through experiential learning on different areas of construction work and 20 other were trained in kerb laying and concrete pavement slab construction works.

The weighbridge, which is equipped with a multi-deck scale, weighs over 600 heavy motor vehicles dayly.

Mr Shongwe said in his speech that was read out by Ms Masina, that overloaded vehicles damage roads in Mpumalanga and result in an increased government expenditure on roads maintenance.

He called on traffic officers to show no mercy towards overloaded vehicles as Government can not continue to spend billions of rand improving damaged roads, only to allow some individuals to destroy it for their selfish gains.

“Overloading, speeding and other traffic law violations will surely meet our iron fist and we will be very brutal in our response to such unbecoming acts. This weighbridge is one of the deterrents that we are putting in place to ensure that we monitor and pick up vehicles that are overloaded.”

Mr Shongwe said the weighbridge in not there to punish vehicle owners for doing business in the province, but to preserve the road infrastructure.

“Our intention is not to fine and make life difficult for business people in the transport sector. We love them, because they have also created thousands of job opportunities for our people and we appreciate that. However, we have a responsibility to ensure that the trucks that they use to do their business on our roads, comply with the prescribed laws and legislation. We will not hesitate to act against those who fail to adhere to the laws, we will hit back 10 times harder to make sure they get the message loud and clear.”

Mr Samson Nkosi from Eskom made a promise to the department that they will make sure that all their contractors who transport coal and the mines that produce the products adhere to the load regulations.

He said it is a mine’s responsibility to ensure that all trucks that leave the mine, are not overloaded.

“In order to deal effectively with overloading, all fines issued to drivers must be shared by the contractor and the mine. This will ensure that responsibility is established and overloading is eliminated.”