Limpopo Transport and Community Safety MEC, Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya says with the sale of alcohol permitted under alert level 1 of national lockdown, traffic and police officers need to double their efforts to ensure compliance during Easter holidays.
Speaking at the launch of the Easter Road Safety Campaign in Polokwane on Friday, the MEC has unveiled 36 newly acquired traffic vans to deal with motorists who fail to comply with traffic regulations and those who do not pay traffic fines.
Lerule-Ramakhanya says traffic and police officers will have a lot of work over the Easter period as they will be dealing with the increase in traffic and COVID-19 compliance.
“As we see the vans they are coming after you if you do not respect the law of this country and you do not pay your tickets. We are currently under lockdown level 1 and we should remember the sale of alcohol is permitted and if the situation remains the same it means we as the law enforcement agency will have to work double effort to ensure compliance.”
Major General, Samuel Manala, says police have planned operations to monitor gatherings in Limpopo over the Easter period.
“In terms of social gatherings, there are operation plans that made for the whole province in terms of various district areas the police will be working in terms of our operation plan with regard to the issue of the gatherings.”
Provincial board chairperson of Community Safety Forum, Ngate Kgorutle, says they prefer the country to be placed on alert level 3 of the national lockdown during the Easter holidays.
“From our observation side, we would beg the president if he can push back to level 3 maybe because we have seen some of the community members are definitely not complying they are not masking and they are not observing social distance that is what we are very much worried about.”
Lerule-Ramakhanya says although the country is still under national lockdown, Limpopo is still expecting high traffic volumes next week. Thousands of road users will be travelling to different destinations for the Easter holidays.
Reaction to call for stricter COVID-19 measures during Easter weekend:
