Transport Minister Barbara Greecey has commended traffic authorities in Limpopo for preventing dozens of overloaded and unroadworthy vehicles from entering South Africa.
Greecey said law enforcement officers conducted successful operations at the Beitbridge Border Post between South Africa and Zimbabwe, as well as along key routes in the province, particularly the N1 corridor from the border through Louis Trichardt towards Polokwane.
The operations mainly targeted trucks and buses.
“We conducted a major crackdown following a tragic incident at the beginning of October, where 91 passengers were found on a 60-seater bus,” Greecey said. “Much of our law enforcement focused on points of departure such as bus and taxi depots. The aim was to prevent the overloading of both passengers and goods, including trailers, which remain a serious concern.”
She was speaking during a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday, where she revealed that festive season road safety operations were largely successful, with both accidents and recorded fatalities declining significantly.
According to the minister, the sustained enforcement drive aims to prevent a repeat of major crashes that previously claimed the lives of scores of passengers travelling to Malawi and Zimbabwe. Investigations found those vehicles to have been heavily overloaded and unroadworthy.
“Limpopo authorities did an excellent job on inbound inspections. We found that buses often departed legally but became overloaded along the route. These are the practices we intercepted to prevent a repeat of the tragic accident outside Musina,” Greecey said.
She warned that transport companies found to be repeat offenders would face severe consequences, stressing that overloading was often coordinated and not merely the result of driver misconduct.
“In some cases, vehicles leave the rank compliant, but make a turn somewhere and engage in illegal activity. It’s that ‘something’ and ‘somewhere’ that we are cracking down on,” she said. “I have also asked my officials and the RTMC to investigate repeat offenders. If there are repeat offenders, we will take harsh measures. We cannot allow foreign companies to operate in our country while breaking the law.”