Minister unhappy with celebrity’s sentencing
ALEXANDRA - The Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters has expressed concern a recent court judgement which reduced a sentence of reckless driving by a local celebrity and his colleague. The incident which happened in 2010 resulted in the death and injury of school children in Soweto.
The Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, has expressed concern at a recent sentence reduction given by the court to a celebrity for reckless driving.
The incident, which happened four years ago in Soweto, resulted in the death and injury of school children.
Peters expressed this concern when commemorating transport month at a national outreach campaign of the Road Accident Fund in Alexandra. The campaign was run concurrently with others in Giyani, Limpopo, Emfuleni, Western Cape, Port Elizabeth and Eastern Cape.
The case resulted from a drag racing incident, involving a celebrity and a colleague, on a public road. Both suspects were under the influence of drugs. They were initially sentenced in 2012 to 20 years for murder, attempted murder and driving under the influence. Their case was changed to attempted murder by the high court recently and was reduced to 10 years, with two years suspended. This has raised the ire of the public, infuriated families of the deceased and prompted the minister’s disappointment with the new verdict.
Peters said, despite any legal justification, the revised verdict was a blow to road safety campaigns especially in the case with mitigating factors of substance (drugs] and alcohol abuse which led to many unwarranted road related deaths. She added the ruling was also untimely as it was made as the nation approaches the festive season, when many lives will be lost due to alcohol related abuse, speeding, fatigue, pedestrian negligence, texting while driving and poor road infrastructure. She said these factors resulted in the loss of 14 000 lives and 280 000 non-fatalities annually, making South Africa one of the worst countries with regards to road safety.
Peters stressed that road related deaths and injuries create a financial burden for the fund, which last year made claim payments in excess of R22 billion. It also impacts limited medical and social services resources through treatments, rehabilitation, caring for widows, orphans and child-headed households.
Congratulating the fund, Peters said the campaign reached deserving poor communities. “The campaign will increase the fund’s visibility and access to the poor, improve claims turn around time, eliminate fraudulent claims and improve stakeholder engagement with communities.”
