North West: Hardly two days after MEC for the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management, Sello Lehari declared that no deviancy will be tolerated in North West, several illegal taxi operators felt the fangs of the law enforcement.
The joint law enforcement operation in Brits, which included SAPS, Provincial Traffic and Madibeng Municipality Traffic, impounded 24 illegal taxis.
These operators were from Necsa, Peacan Wood, Broedestroom, Atteridgeville and Pretoria in the Tshwane Municipality. The impounded vehicles were released after owners paid fines.
In ensuring that passengers are not left stranded, the Provincial Traffic Authorities arranged alternative legal taxis to ferry them to their respective destinations, which mainly were workplaces.
MEC Lehari applauded the good work of the officers. “I had indicated that all major arteries in the Province will have the presence of law enforcement, and we will be intolerant to all wrongdoings,” said MEC Lehari.
Indeed, the MEC emphasized that safer festive season operations will continue until the end of January next year, and they have begun in earnest.
The Brits Traffic Station Manager, Provincial Control Inspector Rapula Ramasodi, said the operation aims to ensure that all public transport operators are legal.
“The danger of the illegal operators is that should anything happen to the passengers, the law will not protect them. The sad reality is that they won’t even be able to claim from the Road Accident Fund should there be fatalities,” said PCI Ramasodi.
The Head of the Department, Dr Hans Kekana, applauded the officers. “We also have to protect the industry by ensuring that all operators are compliant within the prescripts, especially as our Department issues operating licenses,” said the HOD.
Dr Kekana also had friendly advice to all motorists. “Anyone driving on North West roads should consider this a forewarning that nothing will be considered minor. All contraventions are punishable, and we don’t do so because we like to, but as a corrective measure to reduce road crashes,” said Dr Kekana.
He said these operations will be in all the Districts and are part of the Safer Festive Season Operations launched by MEC Lehari on Thursday, 19 October 2023.