Durban — A concerned resident of Pongola has hit back at the Transport Ministry regarding its response to concerns about the N2 in that area.
On Sunday the Transport Ministry neither denied nor confirmed that Minister Fikile Mbalula had seen tweets he was tagged in from a concerned resident of Pongola warning of a potentially fatal crash on the N2 running through the town.
In 2019 Jabu Hansen pleaded with the minister for some sort of traffic control on the national road. Last month he again made the same plea and each time he attached videos of trucks disregarding the rules of the road.
On Friday, 18 pupils and two adults perished on a sharp bend on the N2.
Concerned residents said their plea for robots and/or authorities to man the road in the town fell on deaf ears, which saw Adrian Channing Pearce start a Facebook page to draw attention to the increase in traffic volumes on the N2 between Piet Retief and Durban two months ago.
When asked if the ministry had seen Hansen’s warnings, spokesperson Lwaphesheya Khoza said that the minister had learnt through the Road Traffic Management Corporation of the accident scene which allegedly claimed 20 lives that had occurred between a heavy motor vehicle and a light duty vehicle but that it did not take place at the said crossing.
“Crash investigators from the RTMC have started investigation in collaboration with the police and provincial traffic authorities. Authorities of the law will use all attainable evidence to ensure the conclusion of their investigation and bring about justice to the families of the deceased as well as the community of Pongola,” she said.
Pearce hit back at Mbalula, describing his response as disingenuous and that it was important to look into the reason why all those trucks were on the road, which was the destruction of the rail system that also fell under Mbalula.
“To pick one crossing out of 100km stretch is disingenuous. And we are having a problem along 300km to 400km all the way from Ermelo down to Richards Bay. It’s an issue, these guys are just ducking and diving their responsibility. With the extra demand for coal that’s what drives all these trucks on the road.”
He said that in many cases truck drivers on this road disobeyed any and all rules of the road.
“There is no traffic law enforcement on that road, you drive 200km to and from Richards Bay with no officer in sight. That never used to happen, now it's common. It didn’t just happen yesterday or Friday, this issue has been going on for months.”
KwaZulu-Natal in the past nine months has seen at least 86 deaths on its roads as a result of road crashes.
These were crashes that were reported and involved multiple deaths. Those where fewer than four people died were not included in the 86.
Daily News