Mbalula urged to act on N2 as KZN mayor wants trucks banned during day

Minister of transport Fikile Mbalula has been urged to address the number of trucks passing through the Zululand district after Friday’s massacre when 18 pupils, a teacher’s assistant and driver were killed near Pongola, northern KZN, in a truck collision. 

Zululand mayor Rev Thulasizwe Buthelezi has requested a national strategy to regulate the number of trucks passing through their district, calling for the limiting of travel times for trucks to 6pm — 6am only. 

We have no Road Traffic Management Corporation or Road Traffic Inspectorate offices in Pongola. The town also has no forensic department, people lie dead for more than five hours on the road.

—  Jabu Hansen, Pongola resident

“The R34 from Vryheid to Richards Bay and the N2 from uPhongolo to Richards Bay simply cannot cope with the number of trucks passing through these routes on an hourly basis. There is enormous pressure on our road infrastructure, and as a result, fatal road accidents have become a daily occurrence.”

Pongola residents claim that for the past three years they have been trying to raise the issue of the vast number of unruly trucks on the national highway. 

Resident Jabu Hansen said since 2019 he has been calling on government, even alerting Mbalula on Twitter. 

“Since 2019 I have been calling on the minister of transport to stop the reckless driving on the N2. On August 26 I tried reaching out to him again about the trucks on the N2 in Pongola that are killing us. My calls fell on deaf ears.”

He said not only was there no Road Traffic Management Corporation or Road Traffic Inspectorate offices in Pongola, the town had no forensic department. 

“As a result people lie dead for more than five hours on the road.” 

Another resident, Adrian Chaning-Pearce, said he has been calling for assistance and begging truck drivers to abide by the law on the “coal run” stretch of highway. 

“Due to the increase in demand for coal and the destruction of the railway system we have had an exponential increase in the number of trucks, specifically side-tipper trucks, on our roads. Many of these truck drivers are driving illegally and disobeying the rules of the road. There is no law enforcement on the road, Pongola municipality is limited to road traffic officers, there is no RTI here, and this is causing major problems.”

SA’s rail infrastructure has long been in shambles, placing added pressure onto the country’s freight industry for coal transportation. 

In July last year a train with 208 wagons carrying export coal was on its way to Richards Bay when it derailed at Dassieshoogte, outside Vryheid.

Transnet revealed a derailment had also occurred in the same spot in 2009. 

More than a year later the wreckage from the derailment has not been cleared. 

After the incident community members shut down parts of the N2 in the area demanding justice. 

Since the closure, trucks have been forced to use the R34 as an alternative route.

But the carnage didn’t end on Friday. On Monday two people were injured in another serious truck collision when a truck ploughed into a number of vehicles at a secondary accident scene.

Despite offering his condolences to the Pongola crash victims, Mbalula caught flak from South Africans on social media after he left for Qatar on Saturday to meet the country’s transport officials and deliberate on areas of mutual co-operation between the two countries.