A taxi driver whose blood alcohol count was 16 times over the legal limit and a foreign national carrying drugs were among 113 motorists arrested by road traffic inspectorate officers in the King Cetshwayo region on Friday.
KwaZulu-Natal transport and human settlements MEC Siboniso Duma said the operation in Richards Bay, Empangeni and Esikhaleni (Esikhawini) was conducted from 6pm on Friday evening until the early hours of Saturday.
“A taxi driver was found with an alcohol content 16 times over the legal limit for the PDP category. In addition, an engineer was found with an alcohol content six times more than the legal limit,” said Duma.
This brings to 1,230 the number of motorists arrested in KwaZulu-Natal since August 15.
“A Nigerian man was caught in possession of drugs and was arrested in a joint operation with the police and the Richards Bay community policing forum,” said Duma.
He said Richards Bay accounted for the lion’s share of arrests at 54. Empangeni RTI officials arrested 28 motorists with 31 people finding themselves on the wrong side of the law in Esikhaleni.
Another motorist arrested for drunk driving was found in possession of a gun in contravention of the Firearms Control Act.
Duma lauded RTI members as well as the provincial health department for deploying health professionals to conduct the blood tests.
“The RTI is firm behind the mandate that they should clean up our road networks and ensure that people from the province feel safe. We will never fold our arms when there is an increasing number of people who feel unsafe on our road networks as a result of reckless drivers,” said Duma.
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