An incident occurred earlier this week on the roads of eMalahleni where a mini-bus driver was driving on the wrong side of the road and collided with another vehicle.
The incident happened on Wednesday morning, May 17 on the corner of Wattle and Hermanus Street.
A woman travelling in a white Volkswagen Golf was transporting her children to school; she was going to turn left and looked right to make sure the road was clear to go.
When the woman was about to turn, she noticed a Blue Hyundai H1 that was loaded with school students inside driving in on-coming traffic.
The damage done to the white Volkswagen Golf on Wednesday, May 17.
That is when the Golf and H1 collided in the middle of the road.
“It never did much damage to my vehicle, there is a slight dent in the car and just black marks on the bumper,” said the woman in the Golf.
The woman in the Golf climbed out her vehicle and wanted to get the details from mini-bus driver.
It’s alleged that the mini-bus driver refused to give the woman her drivers licence details and other particulars.
The woman in the Golf’s, mother heard about the incident and contacted the Witbank Traffic Department to report the incident as the WITBANK NEWS article started on Friday, May 12, ‘Traffic Officer stops vehicle with 26 inside.’
The Emalahleni Local Municipality executive mayor, Councillor Lindiwe Ntshalintshali cautioned parents to make sure that they examine minibuses which transport their children to school.
She urged motorists and pedestrians who spot overloaded minibuses to make a note of the registration number and report it to the nearest traffic officer or department.
When she got through to the traffic department, the person she spoke too, to report the problem, would not listen to her or take down the registration number plate down.
The only name she managed to get out of him was; ‘Sipho.’
“The two main problems I have heard is that he would not give his full name and the other problem is that the mini-bus driver is transporting children and travelling on the wrong side of the road,” said the mother of the daughter.
The Blue Hyundai H1 that was transporting children to school on Wednesday, May 17.
Mr Kingdom Mabuza, spokesperson from the Emalahleni Local Municipality was contacted and asked who the community can contact with regard to this.
“The Emalahleni Local Municipality Executive Mayor, Councillor Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, will officially open the call centre on May 25, which will greatly assist and improve lines of communication between members of the community, other stakeholders and the municipality,” said Mabuza.
Anglo American sponsored over R5 million towards the set-up, construction, furniture, equipment, as well as the system for the call centre to become operational after nearly four years.
“The call centre will operate non-stop for 24 hours, seven days a week and would hopefully be utilised by members of the community for reporting all service delivery challenges including emergency services.
Calls related to emergency services will receive priority but that does not mean other calls would not be attended,” he continued.
The recruitment process has been finalised and appointments have been made and the personnel have undergone internal training.
“The call centre started operating on April 26, as part of the testing phase to ensure that all systems are functional and ready for the official opening,” said Mabuza.
However, the call centre itself is only phase one, phase two is the walk-in one stop centre whereby all needs can be addressed at the walk-in centre. This phase is still in progress and will be announced once it is ready.
The contact numbers for the call centre are as follows: 013 690 6222/333/444.
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