I’m originally from KZN, but
I work in the Garden
Route area
in the Western Cape. I normally fly to Durban when I want to visit my family, but this year I
decided to drive the whole 1200KM. I left early in the morning on Thursday the
22nd of December and got onto the N2. The road was beautiful,
without a single pothole from George right through to Grahamstown.
Now, the
first alarming thing that I noticed was that traffic police visibility was
ZERO. The only traffic officers that I saw were in Knysna, and they were
attending to an early morning collision. So it should come as no surprise that
people around me were doing speeds of well over 140kph, on a single-lane
highway.
Between Grahamstown and East London I encountered very misty conditions, and a very bumpy road due to
incomplete roadworks. Yet, though, people were driving here at speeds over
100kph.
After this stretch the road
was uneventful until I got to Mthatha. While still stunned by the pitiful state
of this city, I could not help but shake my head at its citizens’ even worse driving
habits. There was absolute chaos at every intersection. Nobody seems to respect
the fact that a red traffic light means that they should stop. This happened at
every intersection, and there were no pointsmen or traffic officers to marshal
everybody. The road itself was full of large craters that cannot even be
classified as potholes. This is disgraceful and it points to a failed
municipality.
As soon as I left Mthatha I
encountered a pretty severe thunderstorm, and the road was flooded very
quickly. It still didn’t stop the speedsters from attempting dangerous
manoeuvres. Invariably this resulted in a number of serious crashes between
Mthatha and Kokstad, yet still there was simply no traffic officer visible. It
also didn’t help that this section of the N2 is riddled with potholes right up
until you hit the KZN border, where it‘s suddenly smooth again. You have to ask
yourself just what the hell the Eastern Cape municipality responsible for this stretch of road is
doing about it. No national road should be in such a poor state.
I’d like to say that things
were a bit better on the KZN side in terms of traffic officer visibility, but
it doesn’t help things when it turns out that they are corrupt. During my time
in KZN I was doing 115kph in a 100kph zone (yes I’m ashamed of this), and got
stopped by a cop. He showed me my speed and then simply cut to the chase and
asked me how much I had in my wallet. I told him I had nothing and he reluctantly
gave me the ticket. With this kind of rubbish no wonder people still speed with
impunity, knowing fully well that they’ll just handover a bribe.
I took the N3, N5 and N1 on
my way back last Saturday, and things were pretty much the same. The roads were
better but there were no traffic officers anywhere, and people were still
driving like maniacs. With increased police visibility people would stop
speeding, overtaking in double-barrier zones, talking on cellphones, overtaking
on bends and blind-rises, etc.
What I can say is that until
such time that these road issues can be addressed, people will keep on dying in
the 1000s every month on these roads of ours.
1)
There are simply
not enough traffic officers on the roads. Not once have I ever been stopped and
breathalysed in my 5 years driving.
2)
The poor state of
some of our roads is disgraceful. What is happening to my tax money?
3)
Corruption is
endemic within the traffic department.
4)
Roadworthiness of
taxis and busses is not being addressed
Address these 4 points Mr
Ndebele and you’ll see a great reduction in the carnage.
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