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Transport Department targets Supernumeraries for Traffic cop vacancies
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Speeches and Media Releases
 Safety Liaison and Transport

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 MEDIA RELEASE
 TO ALL MEDIA
 FOR IMMEDIATE USE
 18 MAY 2001

TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT TARGETS SUPERNUMERARIES FOR TRAFFIC COP VACANCIES

Eastern Cape MEC for Provincial Safety, Liaison and Transport, Dennis Neer says the department is targeting additional personnel of the 
provincial administration to fill nearly 1000 vacancies in the Traffic Control Department.

MEC Neer made the announcement during a public debate that was broadcasted live on Unitra Community Radio last night as part of the 
governments outreach programme at the City Hall in Umtata. The Executive Council of the Eastern Cape is on a week-long visit to the rural 
districts of Qumbu and Tsolo that, a couple of years ago, were ravaged by violence, as well as Mount Frere. Responding to a question 
regarding the insufficient visibility of traffic control officers in the Eastern Cape, MEC Neer said conceded that there was a significant 
shortage of traffic officers. He said due to limited available budget the Department of Transport could not afford to engage new personnel. 
To make up for the limitations the department began to recruit from about 10 000 additional personnel of the provincial administration who 
are already paid and would not require additional budget to engage to fill the 900 vacancies.

He said a programme was in place to capacitate the redeployed personnel to perform the tasks of traffic officers. He admitted that the pace 
of this recruitment was rather slow and made an appeal to all the potential candidates on the additional personnel list to grab the 
opportunity with both hands. Responding to suggestions that the high road death toll in the province was due to the limited visibility of 
traffic law enforcers, MEC Neer said all the people who use roads are responsible for the scourge and should play their role in ensuring 
that it is overcome.

Other issues raised during the combined public debate and phone in-programme of Unitra Community Radio included high crime rate and its 
impact of local businesses, taxi violence and fraud in the public service. He said although the constitution made crime busting a 
concurrent function of the various spheres of governance, the success of any crime fighting effort depends on the participation of eve 
community member. We said people do many things with the perpetrators of the atrocities yet refrain from exposing such villains within the 
society, he said.

MEC Neer said the provincial government had a secretariat that played a supervisory and monitoring role of the South African police 
Services under the leadership of an Executive Council Member. He said there were 202 Police Stations in eight regions of the province with 
a staff complement of over 18 000. However, he said, that is not enough to deal and eliminate crime.

Regarding the taxi violence, Mr Neer said taxi operators failed to consider themselves business people, who should give consumers a choice 
on what services to access when and at what price. He said the new taxi sticker would replace individual taxi association stickers when the 
agreement reached is refined, within a context of a more regulated taxi industry. He blamed agent provocateurs (oofunzeweni) for the taxi 
violence, saying they were taking the society nowhere.

MEC Neer dismissed allegations that the government is not dealing effectively with fraud in the civil service. He said the bad habit had an 
entrenched tradition from the previous separate racial administrations, saying the strategies adopted and implemented by the provincial 
government were increasingly gaining ground with more and more people being detected, arrested, convicted and also dispossessed of 
properties accrued through fraudulent means in order to pay back the government. He said it was because of the ground covered by the 
government in uprooting corruption and fraud in the civil service that desperation of involved leads to assassination of those turning 
their backs against the fraud syndicates. He said the police fraud unit was even disbanded because they too needed to be investigated.

Issued:Communication Division  office of the Premier
 Inquiries:Manelisi Wolela  082-4147768

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