Durban — Mooi Mpofana Local Municipality mayor Maureen Magubane has issued a stern warning to motorists, particularly truck drivers who by trying to evade toll fees and weighbridge costs in Mooi River toll plaza divert their vehicles to R103 road, which crosses through the town of Mooi River.
In her municipality's festive road safety campaign message, the mayor said her law enforcement agency members were combat-ready to stop any truck from entering R103 road. She said trucks tend to divert to R103 road to avoid paying toll fees at the Mooi River toll gate and to pay for truckloads in the weighbridge.
She added that certain members of the municipality’s traffic officers will be stationary at the Hidcote and Rosetta off-ramps to turn back all trucks that would leave the N3 running away from toll fees and weighbridge costs.
“Government is good because it first warns its people before punishing them. We do not ambush drivers. That's why we are warning them now that we have adopted a zero-tolerance, especially on truck drivers that take chances and divert to our R103 road with the purpose of saving money they were supposed to pay in the toll gate and in the weighbridge.
“We also want to warn motorists in general that they must ensure their vehicles are roadworthy because our traffic will be very strict,” said the mayor.
She added that besides damaging R103 road, trucks are putting the lives of shoppers at risk by crossing through the town.
She said last year, a truck that diverted from the N3 caused an accident where two people were killed. The mayor said during the recent snow that fell on N3 many trucks and motorists used R103 causing a huge traffic congestion in town.
Mooi Mpofana is a tiny municipality along the N3 highway near Mooi River toll plaza. It has only 10 councillors and its population is mainly from the small township of Bruntville and farming communities living and working in the dairy farms.
The ANC-run municipality has been under administration since 2016 because of administration blunders which led to the municipality owing R10 million to Eskom, however, the mayor said she has turned things around and Eskom debt is now R500 000. The mayor said she will make sure that the municipality is out of the administration within six months from now by settling Eskom’s debt sooner. The municipality has only a 209 million budget.
In the 10-council municipality, ANC has seven councillors while the DA, the IFP and the EFF have one each.
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