Festive Season is a period when many people take a break from work to celebrate the end of the year with their families and loved ones. It is usually a time also associated with extensive travel.
Over the years criminals have taken advantage of the holiday season by targeting travellers and ordinary citizens. Many people have consequently become victims of crime because of opportunistic and organised crime.
Due to increased travel across all roads, many road users are involved in deadly crashes due to reckless driver behaviour and lack of respect for the rules of the road.
It is against this background that the province launched its Safer Festive Season Plan today,(19 October 2024) at Mangweni in Nkomazi Local Municipality.
The launch was led by the MEC for Community Safety, Security and Liaison, Mr. Jackie Macie and the SAPS Acting Provincial Commissioner, Major General Dr. Zeph Mkwanazi.
The event was preceded by the donation of food parcels and hampers to the local Silondokuhle Special School and identified elderly people with compliments of the Gift of the Givers.
Speaking during the launch, Dr. Mkwanazi stated that the plan for this festive period will focus on Gender Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF), Trio Crimes which include residential and non-residential robberies and carjackings, Border Security, monitoring of liquor trading and taverns, crimes of extortion, Illicit trading, and protection of critical infrastructure.
MEC Macie stated that the province will deploy traffic law enforcers and resources to ensure road safety. The routes that have contributed the most in terms of crashes in the previous holiday season after a careful analysis of the data gathered over the years will be prioritized.
He also added that the flexi shift where traffic law enforcers will be deployed at night and when most crashes are happening will be implementied as a matter of urgency.
2024 Safer Festive Season launched in Mangweni https://t.co/3ovXPdGV8q#ArriveAlive #SaferFestiveSeason @mpumalangadcssl pic.twitter.com/r9JdgQhTyX
– Arrive Alive (@_ArriveAlive) October 20, 2024