OPINION

"Kgotso!" - Daily Sun

The front page and lead story of SA's largest daily newspaper, April 17 2014

Daily Sun (April 17 2014) - MILLIONS OF commuters take to the road today - many to pray, some to go on holiday, others to be with friends and family.

If you are one of those people, Daily Sun wishes you a safe journey and a peaceful weekend.

KGOTSO!

As always, thousands of buses, taxis and private cars will be streaming along the main roads, heading to Moria in Limpopo and many other church conferences around the country.

Limpopo police say they will be keeping a close watch on the N1 highway to Polokwane.

As part of their programme to do everything they can to keep road deaths to an absolute minimum, police, traffic officials and emergency personnel will be out in full force.

"Our plans include patrols, checkpoints to test vehicles and stop and search points," she said.

"People should not be shocked if they are stopped and their vehicles searched."

Launching the national 2014 Easter road safety campaign last weekend, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters urged all motorists to be considerate of other road users. She said law enforcers will be ready for those who don't drive properly and consider others.

She said many road traffic agencies were working together to make law enforcement as effective as possible.

"Be considerate," she said.

The Joburg Metro yesterday launched the Easter operation at Noord taxi rank.

Safety MMC Sello Lemao said in the past, many people had died on the roads over the Easter weekend. "We want people to arrive safely at their destinations."

The initiative, which included the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco), checked for unroadworthy cars and expired permits and unroadworthy vehicles were prevented from using the road.

A taxi driver had to offload all his passengers after it was found that he didn't have a driver's licence.

Another driver was not permitted to continue his journey because he didn't have a legal permit for South Africa, he had no driver's licence and the vehicle's licence disc had expired.

Lemao said drivers should rest along the way to make sure they don't get tired.

"People who are found drinking on the road must expect no mercy," he said.

Santaco operational manager David Murogolo said they supported the initiative. "We want our drivers to save lives," he said.

JMPD's Wayne Minaar said they will hold roadblocks at different times on all the main roads.

See the Daily Sun mobi site for more on this and other stories....

 

The Daily Sun is South Africa's largest daily newspaper with an average circulation of 297,614 (Audit Bureau of Circulations 4th Quarter 2013) and a readership of 5.7m (as per AMPS 2012ab). Its Facebook page can be accessed here. It can be followed on Twitter here. To find about advertising on the Daily Sun click here.

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