MAHIKENG MAIL-BRITS: The North West Traffic officers have arrested an undocumented foreign national for a series of traffic infringements. The 37 old man who has been identified as a Zimbabwean national, is still to appear at the Brits magistrate court.
He was found not to have any identification document when his vehicle was stopped by the law enforcement officers. The charges include driving without a valid driver’s license and overloading on a trailer that was also found to be unroadworthy.
He was stopped for attempting to bypass the Bapong Weighbridge and was using internal roads while enroute to Zimbabwe from Diepsloot in Gauteng. It appears he was avoiding national routes by using local roads and was planning to go to Thaba Zimbi via Rustenburg. The North West Department of Community Safety and Transport Management’s Road Traffic Officers seized the taxi and trailer on Wednesday afternoon and found that he was in contraventions of the National Land Transport Act. In addition to not producing a valid driver’s license and taxi operator permit, the trailer was found without functional brakes, worn out tyres and the driver was unable to produce a roadworthy certificate.
The trailer had a total load of 8280kg which exceeded the permissible load of 2600kg.
“For the fact that the trailer’s braking system is dysfunctional, the whole load puts more pressure to the pulling vehicle’s braking system which also had 15 passengers on board. In this case, when the driver applies the brakes, the vehicle (taxi), had to carry total weight from the trailer and passengers which weighed 12880kg, and in this case brake failure possibilities are very high”, explained Mr Paul Stone, the Director for Provincial Road Traffic Management.
The Department of Community Safety and Transport Management reiterates its position on unlawful conduct by motorists, that no contravention of the law will go unpunished. Furthermore, Stone cautions against criminality that undermines efforts to preserve lives of all road users. “We condemn in the strongest terms, any efforts to weaken our mandate to save lives, as a department we have made our position clear to ensure maximum compliance to the law and limit the number of fatalities and incidents caused by reckless drivers and road users in general.
“In this particular incident, we are concerned with the overloading of the trailer which is also unroadworthy. As law enforcement, we discourage the overloading of goods, which others appeared to be hazardous items, by law, such goods must be transported in a coordinated manner to avoid potential threats,” said Stone.
At this stage it has not been determined whether the fifteen (15) passengers have valid identification documents. The department is working closely with the Mooinooi Police Station where the case was opened as well as Home Affairs to ensure efficient processing of the passengers.
