The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) says it has deployed more resources on the N1 route from Limpopo to Gauteng to deal with heavy traffic volumes. Major roads leading into Gauteng have seen an increase in traffic since Monday morning.
RTMC spokesperson, Simon Zwane, says the N1 has been identified as a hotspot.
“The roads are extremely busy at the moment. In the last hour, there were 1 900 cars per hour coming through the Mooi River coming to Gauteng. There have been 2 500 of those coming through Carousel to Gauteng.”
“There were also about 1800 on the N4 coming from Mpumalanga. And we know on the N1 there is generally a tendency of misbehaviour of some motorists who will be driving against oncoming traffic, we want to go and intervene and make sure everybody drives according to the rules of the road,” says Xaba.
VIDEO: Gauteng festive season traffic update:
Roadblocks in Mpumalanga
The Department of Community Safety Security and Liaison in Mpumalanga has urged motorists to adhere to traffic laws as travellers. Traffic volumes started picking up on Monday afternoon in most roads in the province, particularly on the N4 towards the Highveld. Department spokesperson, Moeti Mmusi, says drivers’ behaviour has been generally good.
There is high police visibility and road blocks to ensure compliance. About 100 fatalities have been reported in the province’s roads since the beginning of the festive season.
“We are generally happy and content with how most of the motorists behave during the festive season. We have arrested 19 motorists, 12 of those for drunk and driving in residential areas but the other four were for excessive speeding and we issued about 22 summonses for various motorists.”
Meanwhile, the Mpumalanga MEC for Public Works, Roads and Transport Mandla Ndlovu has expressed concern with the behaviour of some truck and taxi drivers on the roads. Ndlovu was conducting a roadblock on the N4 toll road outside Mbombela.
He raised concern about speeding taxi drivers and appealed to motorists to take breaks when they are travelling long distances.
“Another concern is that our taxi operators, they want to make a lot of money in just two or three days. They will drive to Joburg, come back today and the following day return to Joburg. I think it is a concern, fatigue is one of the causes of crashes on our roads they have to rest.”
Traffic peaks in Free State routes
Traffic has also started to peak on some of the major routes in the Free State. Director of Traffic in the Department of Roads and Transport Mamgaliso Xaba says they are maintaining high visibility on major routes.
“Your N1 south and north is busy- that is N1 that is traversing from direction of Cape Town to Gauteng into your Limpopo. It’s starting to peak up now. N3 is also starting to peak up. Off cause we have this one that is between Eastern Cape and Free State which is your N6 that is the one that is busy – that is the one you would recall over the 23rd and 22nd we had a number of accidents on it. So it’d also peaking because I have deployed officers on those roads just to be keep updated from time to time,” elaborates Xaba.
Durban traffic flow
eThekwini metro police says the deployment of additional officers over the festive season has helped to ease traffic flow in Durban.
Metro police spokesperson, Sanelisiwe Mzobe, says officers were deployed in various parts of the Durban CBD and other hotspots to prevent traffic congestion, especially during rolling blackouts.
“Since the beginning of the festive season, Durban metro police has increased and deployed extra members to hotspots areas and different intersections. With regard to factors of load-shedding, where we normally experience high number of traffic volumes, members were also deployed even in beaches. They have been increased a number of roadblocks ever since festive season started,” says Mzobe.
VIDEO: Heavy traffic on N3 as holidaymakers head home:
Meanwhile, the N3 Toll Concession is warning motorists that there is heavy rain on the N3 highway between Hidcote and Estcourt in the KZN Midlands. The toll concession company is asking motorists to reduce speed, switch their headlights on and keep a safe following distance.
North West Traffic
In the North West the Department of Public Safety and Transport Management has called on motorists to be cautious on the roads.
Spokesperson for the department Alpheus Koonyaditse says two people have died in two different incidents.
“We have noticed that N4, N18 as well as N12 has begun to pick up traffic as people are travelling back to their respective work. We also noticed that there is a high volume on rural areas. We had and an accident this morning on N4 between Swaartreguns and Groot Marico where unfortunately we lost one live, there was also a live lost of a pedestrian in Mmamutla in Greater Taung District.”
