eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba expresses concerns about the continued bad behaviour of drivers on the roads. Picture: Thuli Dlamini
eThekwini Municipality mayor, Cyril Xaba, has expressed his concern about the continued bad behaviour of drivers on the roads.
In a sit-down interview with the Independent Media after a walk-about on the city’s beaches interacting with the visitors on Wednesday, the mayor said he was concerned about the crashes that occurred on the city’s roads and vowed to strengthen road safety measures.
Xaba said although he would not want to pre-empt the official releases of road accident statistics by the transport minister, he was concerned his city had contributed to the crashes and fatalities.
“I think on all fronts we did well in the city but we are still concerned about the continued bad behaviour by motorists who under the influence of alcohol disobeyed traffic rules.
“Although our festive season safety plan seemed to have yielded positive results especially on crime, we are not happy with the drivers’ behaviour on our roads and we need to pay special focus on that next time,” said the mayor.
On the other hand, Xaba said he understood that part of the reason why there were accidents in the city was because it was a preferred destination for many people locally and internationally.
Besides being worried by crashes, the mayor commended the law enforcement agencies that were deployed in line with the festive season safety plan, saying since the launch of December 1, there has been no serious crime that was reported. He attributed the success to the high visibility of the police.
On top of its 2 000 metro police officers, the city beefed it up by releasing 500 new recruits from the college who were all deployed in the city centre.
On the number of visitors and accommodation occupancy, the mayor said he does not doubt that by the end of the festive season when the tourism sector consolidates the figures, the city would meet its target of 1.3 million visitors and the 75% occupancy rate in the accommodation.
The city’s festive season calendar runs from December 1 to January 4.
willem.phungula@inl.co.za