Cape Town - Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula’s department and local KwaZulu-Natal transport officials should take some responsibility for the deadly truck accident that claimed the lives of 21 people, mostly children, on the N2 between Pongola and Itshelejuba.
Friday’s horror crash in which a truck ploughed into a bakkie transporting school children was a long time coming, according to residents who alerted officials about the dangerous road as far back as 2019.
Even the so-called “Mr Fix It” Mbalula was once informed by a Twitter user about a tragedy waiting to happen.
A call he evidently ignored, perhaps because it came from an unknown source. In his post the resident pleaded with Mbalula for his intervention.
“@MbalulaFikile I am from a small town called Pongola in northern KZN, we have (the) N2 crossing in the middle of the town, there are no robots to control the traffic and it is only a matter of time before a huge accident that will take many lives happens.
@MbalulaFikile I am from a small town called Pongola in Northern KZN, we have N2 crossing in the middle of the town, there are no robots to control the traffic and it is only a matter of time before a huge accident that will take many lives happen. The municipality is doing ...
— Jabu Hansen (@minyamadoda) June 13, 2019
“The municipality is doing things at a very slow pace and doesn’t seem to comprehend the situation at hand.”
His plea fell on deaf ears, but he did not stop there. As recently as August 26, he wrote again to Mbalula and Sanral: “Trucks are killing us on the Pongola N2, no traffic cops manning this route except local traffic cops when trucks get to town. We request your urgent intervention.”
That, too, was ignored and now that ticking time bomb has exploded, claiming the lives of innocent children.
The municipality and the provincial government must tell the nation why they did nothing when alerted to the dangers the residents faced when crossing this road.
Would they have ignored these signs when this was in their fancy suburbs? How can this ANC government claim to be caring when it hardly listens to the people, let alone acts on their grievances?
The families of these children deserve answers, and just sending condolences to them only rubs salt into the wound. If South Africans do not hold those we elect to power accountable for their deadly failures, it’s our children who will suffer the most.
This mediocre level of service must come to an end.
Cape Times