Ambassadors for point duty to be appointed

Transport MEC, Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya says the rising cases of pedestrians dying on provincial roads has prompted the department to move swiftly to appoint road safety ambassadors for point duty in all the identified critical routes in the five districts of Limpopo through the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP).

She said during her budget speech that this would be a continuous programme implemented at district municipal level.

“I can now confirm that 143 road safety ambassadors have been appointed from 25 February on 24-month contracts. All the participants have acquired basic point duty training at the Limpopo Traffic College.”

She says 107 more young people would be employed in the same regard in the various district municipalities to assist in managing heavy traffic flows in selected critical hotspots.

“In the budget vote tabled in May last year, I made several commitments informed by the budget and programmes planned for the financial year. I am delighted to report that we have managed to deliver on most of the promises made despite the gaps and challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The department has managed to keep all the remaining traffic officers from the batch of officers who were on learnerships in the financial year 2019/20. This brings the number to 248 officers absorbed by the department in the past financial year to assist in enforcing regulations and compliance on our roads.

According to Lerule-Ramakhanya, the visibility of our officers has increased immensely since the additional intake of learners on fulltime basis, and this has led to the reduction of fatal accidents on our roads.

The department was unable to recruit aspiring young men and women who wanted to undergo training at the college in the past financial year due to resurgence of Covid-19, lockdown regulations and health protocols but irrespective of this setback, the department used the unfortunate break to provide decent shelter and conducive training environment for the next intake.

She says the department has completed the upgrading of the A phase block at the traffic college.

“This block constructed at the tune of R18 million will accommodate 60 trainees. Last year, I reported that the department has acquired 76 new vehicles at the cost of R12 million, of which among them were vans meant for execution of warrants of arrest. We have managed to brand them properly which also include the fitting of blue lamps by the Road Traffic Management Corporation. This will ensure that the visibility of our officers is enhanced on all the roads and this will definitely lead to the reduction of crashes in the province.”