Durban — Reacting to media reports that the local community has blockaded roads and is preventing heavy freight vehicles from moving in the area of Pongola, in KwaZulu-Natal, Road Freight Association (RFA) chief executive Gavin Kelly said the association repeatedly called on the authorities to address the issue of non-compliant operators.
Kelly said that according to media reports, the local community has blockaded roads and is preventing heavy freight vehicles from moving in the area. This follows on the heels of a meeting between the Pongola mayor during which the community demanded close monitoring of trucks by the municipality to prevent a recurrence of the terrible incident last year which cost the country many young lives.
Evidently, the mayor, Bheki Thwala, stated that after the horrific incident, authorities promised they would monitor trucks for speeding and roadworthiness. He said that was done, and everything was running smoothly, but the monitoring suddenly stopped, Kelly said.
“The first question that arises is: which authorities is he referring to (if not the local municipal traffic force itself), and the second is: why did the authority stop the activity? Additionally, whilst the authorities were monitoring, was there a change in the behaviour of the targeted road freight operators, and when the authorities withdrew – did behaviour revert back to what it was before the authorities were active?”
“The RFA has repeatedly called on the authorities (at various levels in government) to address the issue of non-compliant operators (transporters), as well as to deal with any offences that are committed – especially where such offences may be repeatedly committed and are the root cause for incidents that occur,” Kelly said.
He said that it is logical that given the huge increase in coal transport by road through the area to Richards Bay, the provincial traffic authority would allocate more resources to the routes that are now carrying far more vehicles.
He also said that transporters are now faced with situations where routes are being barred by communities (who in themselves are acting illegally or unlawfully) which also affects those transporters who played no part in the recent tragedy. Some, who even after having contributed freely to the communities in their hour of devastation and sorrow, are now being tarred with the same brush and prevented from operating.
“This is neither fair nor in any way legal,” Kelly said.
“There are very clear and focused legal requirements and parameters for operating road freight vehicles on public roads. The regulations contained in legislation need to be consistently and firmly applied and monitored and those operators (transporters) that ignore these requirements must be dealt with decisively. The law-abiding operators must be allowed to continue their operations without hindrance from parties and groupings who have no role in the control and monitoring of road freight traffic matters,” Kelly explained.
Thwala said: “The closure of the road is a move by the community to call all relevant stakeholders to come and engage [with] them regarding the matter.”
Hopefully, this will include the provincial traffic authority who needs to restore the control of road traffic matters back to the mandated authorities and to ensure that non-compliant road users are dealt with, including those who block the free flow of traffic.
Thwala said he met with the community and also spoke to truck authorities about the road closure. It would be interesting to note which truck authorities the mayor had spoken to in an effort to resolve this – unless he is referring to the operators that run coal vehicles through the Pongola area.
Meanwhile, when Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula released festive-season statistics, he also gave feedback regarding efforts undertaken by authorities to stabilise and reduce road crashes on hot-spot routes involving heavy vehicles on the N3 and Pongola N2.
Mbalula said heavy vehicles and trucks remain a stubborn phenomenon on our roads, particularly the N2 from Mpumalanga and Richards Bay as well as the N3.
“We cannot shy away from the fact that the Pongola tragedy remains a grim reminder of the magnitude of the task at hand to ensure safety on our roads. The realization that a large number of heavy vehicles on our roads are unroadworthy and drivers have become a law unto themselves must spur us into decisive action,” Mbalula said.
“We must redouble our efforts to find a long-term solution and decisive interventions, which must include deploying Mobile Vehicle Testing Centres in KwaZulu-Natal on the N2 and N3.”
Mbalula said that in December 2022, over 1 200 vehicles and trucks were stopped and checked, with this number increasing to 1 204 in January 2023.
Daily News