DURBAN - THE DA in KwaZulu-Natal wants answers from the provincial Department of Transport MEC after the revelation of discrepancies within the province’s Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI), where it emerged that traffic infringements had not been captured since 2019.
On Wednesday, the DA issued a statement expressing its concern on the Auditor-General (AG) Report into KwaZulu-Natal’s Department of Transport tabled during a Public Accounts (Scopa) meeting held on Monday.
The party said the situation had been attributed to the department’s change to a new OPUS traffic management system in 2020.
According to DA, the RTI’s Accounting Officer, the department reported R465 million in revenue. However, the AG believes that this was understated by R157 million.
“The RTI previously operated under the Trafman system but moved to the OPUS system in May 2020. The move was aimed at ensuring that traffic infringements were captured more efficiently. At the time that the Opus system went live, there was a declaration by all RTI station commanders confirming their commitment to the project.
“It is now evident that these were just hollow pledges since the very individuals responsible for ensuring traffic infringements were properly recorded are clearly disinterested. This is despite the fact that this is a revenue-based project and – most importantly – that it would also mean more law-abiding drivers on our province’s roads,” said Sharon Hoosen, DA KZN spokesperson on transport and community safety.
“Remedial action has only recently been recommended by the AG. However, at this stage, it remains very uncertain as to whether any of the traffic fines will reach the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).”
According to Hoosen, what made the matter worse, was that RTI terminated its contracts with summons servers in April 2019. This after it employed individuals who did not have vehicles, making it impossible to deliver any summons to traffic infringers in time.
The DA called on KZN Transport MEC, Peggy Nkonyeni, to act urgently on this issue in light of the upcoming peak holiday season.
“The debacle has shown very clearly why KZN continues to see an increase in road accidents and lawless drivers,” said Hoosen.
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