Transport and Public Works
With regard to Western Cape travellers that visited other provinces:
(1) (a) What is the number of Western Cape travellers who visited other provinces during the Easter holiday, (b) what is the number of travellers from other provinces who visited the Western Cape during the Easter holiday and (c) what are the details of operations that his Department held during the Easter holiday;
(2) whether travellers entering and/or leaving the province were screened or tested; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
(1) (a) and (b)
Even though we have developed various applications and systems in the past three years to assist traffic law enforcement to approach our tactical and operational planning in more detail, our current applications cannot perform the function of determining the number of travellers entering or leaving our province.
(c) Western Cape Provincial Traffic Services implemented a total of 240 integrated roadblocks, vehicle check points and speed control operations across the province in the week of 1 to 5 April 2021 with 19 707 vehicles having been stopped and checked. A total of 2 016 speeding offences were recorded and 6 145 fines were issued for various traffic violations ranging from driver and vehicle fitness to 49 charges being laid under the Disaster Management Act. 13 vehicles were impounded and 68 were discontinued for unroadworthiness.
The highest speeds recorded were as follows:
- 183 km/h in a 120 km/h zone
- 156 km/h in a 100 km/h zone
- 124 km/h in a 80 km/h zone
- 104 km/h in a 70 km/h zone
- 99 km/h in a 60 km/h zone
A total of 34 arrests were made for the following offences:
• 14 x driving under the influence of alcohol
• 5 x fraudulent documentation
• 4 x speeding
• 5 x reckless and negligent driving
• 1 x bribery
• 1 x goods overloading
• 1 x inconsiderate driving
• 1 x drunk pedestrian
• 1 x no driver’s licence
• 1 x no operating licence
The positive contribution of our tactical and operational planning, as well as the commitment by all our traffic officers including our Road Safety Practitioners from our Road Safety Management and Transport Operations Directorate contributed to the reduction of fatalities on our roads over the 2021 Easter period compared to 2019 which was used to realistically benchmark the positive outcome and reduction as listed below.
THREE-YEAR COMPARATIVE FATALITIES | ||
2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
37 | 3 • major reduction due to Covid 19 Lockdown Level 5 | 26 • A total of 19 fatalities occurred within Municipal Boundaries and 7 on Provincial Routes • 14 Pedestrians • 8 Drivers • 2 Passengers • 2 Motorcyclists |
It is important to note that we had zero-fatalities over this Easter period, and the Festive Season across the province where we operated our joint Fatigue Management operations.
(2) The screening of travellers for Covid 19 is the competency of Department of Health, and this function was not included as part of our tactical and operational plans over this Easter period.
