Frank Maponya
Frank Maponya
About 40 traffic officers in Polokwane are twiddling their thumbs because the licence discs of their official cars have expired.
Some of the officers' cars are therefore not roadworthy as their discs have not been renewed. These cars belong to the Limpopo traffic department.
Normally, no one would stop traffic officers to check if their cars are roadworthy.
But insurance companies will not pay should any of the the cars be involved in an accident with an expired disc.
Sowetan yesterday visited the offices at the corner of Rissik and Potgieter streets and found a number of traffic cars parked with expired discs. The officers were idling as they could not use the cars for official duties.
Some of the discs had expired in November last year and others expired at the end of January. Normally at least a 21-day grace period is allowed to renew expired discs, but this has not happened with the traffic officers' cars.
Some of the officers we spoke to said the discs on 12 of their cars had expired. They blamed this on the management of the traffic station.
"Management was told that the discs were expiring but did nothing to renew them," said one of the officers, who asked not to be identified.
He said they would continue reporting for work but do nothing for as long as the discs had not been renewed.
"How do you expect us to execute our duties with diligence while we are using vehicles that are not supposed to be on the road?" he asked.
"Someone must just do his job or else we will continue to earn while not working," added another.
Sources say the provincial department of roads and transport owes Polokwane municipality more than R300 000 for the discs and other services.
Traffic cops cars are out of service
Frank Maponya
Frank Maponya
About 40 traffic officers in Polokwane are twiddling their thumbs because the licence discs of their official cars have expired.
Some of the officers' cars are therefore not roadworthy as their discs have not been renewed. These cars belong to the Limpopo traffic department.
Normally, no one would stop traffic officers to check if their cars are roadworthy.
But insurance companies will not pay should any of the the cars be involved in an accident with an expired disc.
Sowetan yesterday visited the offices at the corner of Rissik and Potgieter streets and found a number of traffic cars parked with expired discs. The officers were idling as they could not use the cars for official duties.
Some of the discs had expired in November last year and others expired at the end of January. Normally at least a 21-day grace period is allowed to renew expired discs, but this has not happened with the traffic officers' cars.
Some of the officers we spoke to said the discs on 12 of their cars had expired. They blamed this on the management of the traffic station.
"Management was told that the discs were expiring but did nothing to renew them," said one of the officers, who asked not to be identified.
He said they would continue reporting for work but do nothing for as long as the discs had not been renewed.
"How do you expect us to execute our duties with diligence while we are using vehicles that are not supposed to be on the road?" he asked.
"Someone must just do his job or else we will continue to earn while not working," added another.
Sources say the provincial department of roads and transport owes Polokwane municipality more than R300 000 for the discs and other services.
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