Mahikeng: North West MEC for Community Safety, Sello Lehari, is spearheading the initiative to call on road users to actively contribute to ensuring safety on the roads, particularly during the festive season.
The aim is to reduce road accidents and promote a culture of responsibility among motorists and pedestrians alike. Lehari emphasizes that everyone has a role to play in creating a safer road environment.
He said safety is everybody’s responsibility, and it is important for every citizen to play a role.
“Our target is to have fewer fatalities and improve from last year’s achievements as we had a reduction. Our main responsibility is to save people’s lives, and this can be achieved if they also play their role. Safety is a collective responsibility,” said Lehari, leading one of the festive joint operations in Mahikeng.
The Director for Road Traffic Management, Paul Stone, said they will work hard to ensure safer festive. “We are going to serve all our road users with care and dignity yet with no favour,” he said.
In increasing traffic visibility on the major roads of the Province, MEC Lehari has recently launched the Eagles Special Unit that operates on 24 hour basis particularly on the N12, N4, N18 and N14.
During these operations road safety officers interacts with motorists and encourages those driving long distance to rest every after two hours or 200km of driving.
During the interaction, one of the motorists said, “We want the police officers that were deployed in Wolmaransstad to only leave for a week, but our town criminal activities have started again, and we are now in festive people hard earned money it’s going to be taken away please bring back that police officer.”
“Police and Ministry should also do on criminal activities that are increasing during the festive season, and murder and molestation are very common to see these days,” said another user.