As part of the 2012/13 Festive Season Arrive Alive Campaign, Minister of Transport Ben Martins together with the Eastern Cape MEC for Transport Thandiswa Marawu will join a roadblock at Kinkelboos which is 53 kilometres east of Port Elizabeth and on the N2 to Grahamstown on Sunday, 23 December 2012 @ 10h00.
This forms part of the intensification of this campaign and as it will be 2 days before Christmas; scores of people are expected to be driving home and to other various locations to celebrate Christmas Day with their families and loved ones.
“Our main objective is to promote road traffic safety in general throughout the Province in order to effect a reduction in road accidents, fatalities and injuries as well as combating road traffic offences by means of a multi-disciplinary “ZERO TOLERANCE” approach,” says MEC Marawu.
As the campaign approaches the Christmas period, New Year’s Day and the Orange Cup of Nations Tournament, provincial law enforcement is expected to intensify its traffic operations which include the provincial “Operation Asihleki” and the continued implementation of the National Rolling Enforcement Plan where they are to stop and check expected to stop and screen 85 000 vehicles per month, with each officer expected to stop and check a minimum of 15 vehicles per eight-hour shift.
The contingent of 1123 provincial and municipal traffic officers will play their role through the implementation of the Second Phase of the National Rolling Enforcement Plan (NREP II) - which started in September 2012 and will run through to September 2013 and as from December 2012 and January 2013, the Department vowed to ensure that its traffic officers are available 24 hours a day from Thursdays until Sundays, especially during the night and early hours of the morning.
The purpose of the roadblock will be to focus on:
- Speeding
- Checking of public transport (roadworthiness and overloading)
- Driver fitness and most especially drunken driving.
- Safety Breaks
- Wearing of Seatbelts and use of Cellphones
- Fatigue
- Fraudulent Driving Licenses
- Overloading
Commuters are also urged to play a role by informing our law enforcement agencies of any problems they encounter on our roads, whether it be accidents, incidents, stray animals or bad driving through calling our Customer Care Centre toll free number 0800 644 644, which will be in operation 24 hours a day for the duration of the campaign.
