Road users should brace for zero tolerance in KZN

R1m recovered in licence fees OPERATORS CAN expect more fines and the arrest of drivers in the next phase of KwaZulu-Natal’s road safety campaign. Transport, Community Safety and Liaison MEC Bheki Cele told the legislature in Pietermaritzburg recently that the “Keep Left Pass Right” campaign was aimed at ensuring compliance with the law. “This is in line with our newly coined slogan ‘From zero Tolerance to 100% Compliance’ which we launched in December 2004,” Cele told the legislature. The MEC said trends had shown that congestion on the roads led to crashes that were a result of motorists not observing the rules of the road. The additional reason behind the campaign was the understanding that collisions and accidents were attributed to human error and demanded an education drive. He said the department was currently monitoring compliance and law enforcement would be intensified within the next few months. The MEC also told the legislature that through the Special Investigations Unit the department had recovered a million rand from trucks and buses that had avoided paying appropriate licence fees. This they had done by giving incorrect weights of their vehicles thus defrauding the system of thousands of rand. Cele said this constituted “daytime” robbery and would not be tolerated