THE mayor of Zululand District Reverand Thulasizwe Buthelezi has called for the banning of trucks during the day in Pongola, which is in the far north of KwaZulu Natal Buthelezi was speaking after the fatal truck tragedy that claimed the lives of 19 children and 2 adults on Friday. Buthelezi said that there should be a national strategy to regulate the number of trucks passing through Zululand. "The R34 from Vryheid to Richards Bay and N2 from Pongola simply cannot cope with the number of trucks passing these routes on an hourly basis. There is enormous pressure on our road infrastructure and as a result fatal road accidents have become a daily occurrence," said Buthelezi.
STRATEGY TO DEAL WITH TRUCKS
Buthelezi further called on Minister of Transport to deal with the truck problem. "We call upon Minister of Transport (Fikile Mbalula) to urgently to come up with a national strategy to deal with these trucks, including limiting their times of travel to between 18h00 to 06h00 only," said Buthelezi. Buthelezi also offered his condolences to all the families who lost their loved ones in this accident. The mayor has delegated his municipal officials to assist the bereaved families at this difficult time.Police on Friday confirmed that truck was involved in a tragic accident. "On Friday at around 16:00, Pongola Police were called to an accident on N2, on arrival they noticed that there were fatalities.A case of culpable homicide was opened at Pongola for investigation," said Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo. The driver, who had ran away from the accident scene but later handed himself over, appeared in court yesterday and would remain in police custody until he appears in again on
HARD BEING A TRUCK DRIVER
One truck driver Mthobisi Mbatha, who spoke to Zimoja, said that the community of Pongola was very angry at them and they have vowed to stop all the trucks that are passing by R34 because there are always accident on that road. "It is hard to be a truck driver because when that accident happens, the community tells us that they will burn all the trucks that are passing through that route because they are sick and tired of accidents that kills many on that route.I will brief my boss about the dangers of driving that side as people are still angry over that accident that killed young people," said Mbatha who witnessed the car accident.
THE COMMUNITY NEEDS YOU
Meanwhile television personality Bonang Matheba dragged Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula on Twitter,who said, "Landed in Qatar,Doha! Good Morning," to which Matheba responded "Tone deaf. All of you should've cancelled this trip. The community of Pongola need you."
