A KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport and Human Settlements blitz on trucks and undocumented foreign nationals led to the arrest of ten people, including three truck drivers, this week.
Transport and Human Settlements MEC Siboniso Duma said traffic officers and police had made the arrests during the department’s Transport Month operations across the province.
He said the department was intensifying multi-disciplinary operations to “clean up” road networks.
“Our highly efficient team from Road Traffic Inspectorate, working with Home Affairs Immigration Unit, arrested 10 undocumented foreign nationals, including three truck drivers. We stopped 260 trucks and charged 13 truck drivers for the violation of traffic rules.
“We are acting decisively against undocumented truck drivers who have turned our road networks into killing fields and high accident zones. Over the past few months, we have recorded more than 30 accidents involving trucks – some driven by foreign nationals who disappeared after the accidents.”
He said 177 traffic officers who graduated on Tuesday had joined the operations, which included the assessment of trucks and monitoring of activities at weighbridges.
“They are already augmenting various operations undertaken by our highly efficient and dedicated team from the Road Traffic Inspectorate.”
He said in recent months officers weighed 207 891 vehicles at its weighbridges, of which 48 973 (23.6%) were found to be overloaded and 5 842 (2.8%) were charged for violations of the law.
