The Gauteng Traffic Police have not been declared an essential service to provide 24-hour monitoring of Gauteng roads and ensure the safety of road users, despite funds being allocated in the previous financial year.
The Gauteng Traffic Police are critical in reducing the number of car hijackings and robberies on our busiest roads, such as N1 and N3, where spike strips are being used.
This means that the lives of motorists and road users are in danger because there is no monitoring of Gauteng roads at night, as the Gauteng Traffic Police does not operate 24 hours a day.
The service of the police is critical to ensure the safety of motorists and reduce the number of car hijackings and robberies on our busiest roads such as N1 and N3 where spike strips are being used.
In the 2022/2023 financial year, a budget was allocated to ensure that the Gauteng Traffic Police are declared an essential service to ensure 24-hour monitoring of our roads. However, to date, they have not been declared an essential service.
The Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Faith Mazibuko, has stated that there are ongoing discussions with the organised labour, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), and the Provincial Traffic Management to finalise the issue.
Unnecessary delays in finalising this matter are negatively affecting motorists and the police, who would benefit from the Gauteng Traffic Police being declared as an essential service. It will assist in improving working conditions, increase benefits for the police, and ensure the safety of road users.
The DA has already tabled questions to MEC Mazibuko in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to ascertain the cause of the delays in declaring the Gauteng Traffic Police an essential service. We want to know what happened to the allocated budget, how much was allocated, the progress of the ongoing discussions, and when the decision will be made to declare them an essential service.