Durban - Residents of the Durban south suburb of Bluff are pitching in to help another resident fix his beaten-up Nissan bakkie after it caused an outcry on a Facebook group.
In the post, Kaz Koekemoer, expressed concern after seeing the vehicle.
"Surely this is not roadworthy. Driving around the Bluff. The middle of the bakkie is scraping on the road. Sir, you are going to kill an innocent person," she posted.
The post garnered more than 180 comments, with residents expressing their thoughts.
Seeing the silver lining, Koekemoer called on residents to help donate money to help the driver fix his vehicle.
Meanwhile, Road Traffic Management Corporation spokesperson Simon Zwane said the vehicle should not be on the road.
"Officers should remove its licence disc, if it has one, and tear it. They are also entitled to impound it and demand that all defects be fixed. It requires a roadworthy certificate before it is allowed on the road again," he said.
Metro Police head, Steve Middleton, said they were clamping down on unroadworthy vehicles.
"If we know where it is, there's no doubt we will take it off the road. Just today, we took a vehicle off the road in the Durban CBD. We will impound it and fine the driver, no doubt about it," he added.
KZN Department of Transport spokesperson Kwanele Ncalane said unroadworthy vehicles were a problem.
"Part of the focus, as we approach the festive season, is to focus on roadworthiness of vehicles. We will be mounting operations throughout the province, at toll roads and in townships as some of these vehicles only move in smaller areas and some on the highways. We have taken a firm stance on this and we want to see Metro also working on removing these vehicles off the roads.
“We are also working with RTMC and stakeholders to integrate our operations to put a dent in the number of road crashes and fatalities. We will also be focusing on trucks, in view of the number of serious crashes that we've seen on our roads," he said.
If you're one of those drivers with an unroadworthy vehicle, passop!
IOL