Richards Bay truck congestion costing City of uMhlathuze millions

The City of uMhlathuze says it is incurring millions in costs to pay overtime to traffic officers amid ongoing truck congestion.

This as hundreds of heavy-duty vehicles, mostly side-tipper coal trucks, continue to queue along the John Ross highway and on the N2 waiting to off-load cargo at the Port of Richards Bay.

Massive congestion was once again observed on the John Ross this (Wednesday) morning, stretching from the Foskor intersection back almost to Meerensee.

City manager Nkosenye Zulu said the annual allocation of approximately R4-million, set aside for overtime pay for traffic officers, has been fully depleted just four months into the 2023/24 financial year.

“The city’s traffic officers have been working tirelessly to manage the truck congestion, and their overtime has been vital in ensuring the safety and flow of traffic in the face of this growing challenge,” said Zulu.

“On average, traffic officers have been receiving additional monthly overtime income which exceeds their monthly payment.”

He said this is largely owing to the daily deployment of traffic officers at the N2 entry point onto the John Ross as part of efforts to manage traffic flow.

Zulu said this has forced the Community Services department to approach his office for an additional R14-million to finance truck management duties.

In an effort to address these ongoing challenges, the municipality is undertaking some measures, including urgent recruitment of traffic officer reservists on a fixed-term basis to mitigate the overtime payments.

These reservists will assume duty in a week’s time, while the full-time traffic officers will resume their normal law enforcement duties.

The municipality is also seeking legal remedy against the ‘offending entities to compel the restoration of locomotives and rail’.

This, together with the reduction of heavy vehicles that convey commodities from the mines to the port.

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