‘Suspicious Resident’ writes:-
I SUSPECT that the newspaper deliberately did this to make a point, but didn’t actually say it.
In last week’s Vryheid Herald it was said that the crime statistics recently released revealed that in Vryheid, 151 people were caught “Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Drugs”.
Your report later stated that in Mondlo during the same period, there were just 15 cases of driving under the influence.
Given that we are told that nearly 70% of AbaQulusi’s population lives in or around Mondlo, and if we bear in mind the populations of Hlobane, Coronation, Cliffdale, Inyathi, Louwsburg, Glückstadt, Swart Umfolozi and other rural and/or informal settlements, then I would guess that Mondlo’s population is almost double Vryheid’s.
Assuming things are proportional, then the number of drunk driving cases in Mondlo should be almost double that of Vryheid, say about 302 cases.
Instead, it’s just 15.
How can this be?
Well, there are a number of possible answers, but two probable ones:
1. Mondlo residents by and large are non-drinking, sober-minded, church-going people, who with very, very, very few exceptions (just 15 people per year) never, never drink and then drive. Never. Bottlestores go broke in Mondlo through lack of patronage. Not even iJuba. Mondlo is South Africa’s soberest area.
2. Local traffic officers, whether in the RTI for the roads leading to Mondlo, or municipal officers for the roads within Mondlo, would not dare, would never even contemplate, holding a breathylising roadblock in Mondlo on any night of the week, but especially never, never ever over the weekends. Never. Are you crazy? A roadblock in Mondlo?
I know which one I believe.
It’s just easier and a lot, lot safer to pick on the people in town.
