KwaZulu-Natal transport MEC blames driving licence testing centres that sell licences.
|||July was one of the deadliest months this year for motorists, according to KwaZulu-Natal transport MEC Willies Mchunu who blamed unlicensed drivers and corrupt officials for much of the road carnage.
But this month was expected to be worse, said Mchunu, who was speaking at the weekend at the funerals of four members of a KwaMakhutha family who died in a crash on the N2 near Umgababa last week.
Mchunu, who said there was an average of 120 crashes a month on KwaZulu-Natal roads, blamed driving licence testing centres and said unlicensed drivers were the main offenders.
“The departments that sell driving licences are the reason for these accidents.”
“Learn to drive and you can avoid accidents. It is hard to count these accidents,” he said.
Mchunu pleaded with motorists to respect the rules of the road.
He was speaking in uMkhomazi where hundreds of people crammed into a giant tent erected on a soccer pitch for the funerals.
Four coffins with the bodies of Dennis Ndlovu, his wife Abigail and two children, Phumelele, 18, and Ndumiso, 12, were arranged at the front of the tent and elicited heart-wrenching cries from mourners.
The Ndlovus were travelling on the N2 on Sunday last week when their vehicle crashed into another car and burst into flames.
Ndlovu, his wife and son were burnt beyond recognition.
Phumelele, who was flung out of the vehicle, was airlifted to Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban where she died on arrival.
The driver of the other vehicle, Ameel Maharaj, died on impact and was buried last Tuesday. His two daughters, Anisha, 8, and Tenisha, 10, are still in hospital.
The crash, which police said occurred after one of the drivers tried to make a U-turn on the freeway, left three of the Ndlovus’s children orphaned.
“SA LOSING FUTURE LEADERS”
The three school-going children, who were not in the vehicle at the time of the accident, were inconsolable at the funeral on Saturday and had to be taken away by relatives.
Ndlovu worked at Toyota and his wife was a teacher at Thambo Primary School, where their son, Ndumiso, was in Grade 7.
Phumelele was a matric student at KwaMakhutha High School.
Mchunu said the country was losing its future leaders because of “restless” drivers on the road.
“They were too young, and the future of this country,” he said.
“And it’s even harder to hear they are scholars.”
An inquest docket has been opened by police to investigate the circumstances of the crash. - Daily News