TRANSPORT Minister Dipuo Peters has called on traffic officers to adopt a no-nonsense stance when enforcing the law, saying they should not hesitate to lock up ministers who break road regulations.
“If you arrest an MEC or a politician who has transgressed the road regulations and laws, you must lock them up like you were going to lock up everybody,” Peters said to applause from traffic officers.
She was addressing the national traffic indaba hosted by the Road Traffic Management Corporation in Durban yesterday.
“There is no mayor who must tell you that ‘I’m rushing to a meeting’. There is no minister that must tell you that “I‘m late. I’m rushing to a meeting’.
"There is this bureaucracy that must do the work,” Peters said as the country enters the festive season.
She also told the hundreds of traffic officers to ensure that nobody interfered with their work.
“Once you start doing favours for a minister, a mayor, priest and that one, where will it end?” she asked.
Peters also said traffic officers should do what was correct and ensure that the rules of the road were obeyed.
“MPs, MPLs and councillors are lawmakers and they must be the first in line to obey them.”
Turning to corruption, Peters said it was one of the factors that contributed to high traffic fatalities in the the country.
The recently released South African Citizen’s Bribery Survey named avoiding traffic offences and obtaining a driving licence among the five reasons for resorting to bribery.
“It is clear from this survey that the culture of bribery is a major factor in influencing lawlessness on our roads.
“We can never succeed in inculcating a culture of voluntary compliance with the rules of the road if people know that they can buy their way out of facing the consequences of their ill-discipline,” Peters said.
Since 2015, she said, more than 30 traffic officers had been arrested on allegations of bribery, fraud and graft.
Recalling witnessing the arrest of an officer in Benoni last month on fraud and corruption allegations, she said it was a humiliating experience and eroded human dignity.
Peters was, however, convinced that, after discussions at the national traffic indaba, there would be more anti-corruption ambassadors among the officers.