Press Statement by Maureen Scheepers: DA Councillor in eMalahleni Local Municipality
- eMalahleni has just one breathalyser and six trained traffic officers to conduct breathalyser testing
- Following our engagement new breathalysers will be procured and more officers will be trained
- Sustained DA pressure forces eMalahleni to adopt a stronger stance against drunk driving
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in eMalahleni welcomes the municipality’s decision to support our call for stronger law enforcement against drunk driving.
Acknowledging the increasing number of accidents, particularly over the weekends, we submitted questions to the municipality concerning alcohol related roadblocks that were conducted by local law enforcement.
In response, we discovered that eMalahleni has just one operational breathalyser for the entire municipal area and only six traffic officers are trained and certified to conduct breathalyser testing.
Considering the above operational challenges, the municipality admitted that dedicated drunk driving enforcement operations were not conducted by the municipality over the past twelve months. As a result of the above failure:
• No motorists were tested for alcohol consumption during municipal traffic operations.
• No motorists were arrested for driving under the influence by municipal traffic officers.
• And no drunk driving cases were registered by municipal traffic officers during the past twelve months.
Given that drunk driving is one of the leading contributors of serious crashes and fatalities on South African roads, the municipality’s failure to implement the related enforcement operations is both alarming and unacceptable.
Following our engagement, Council instructed the relevant department to procure additional breathalyser devices, ensure that all remaining traffic officers receive the necessary accreditation to conduct breathalyser testing, and procure a dedicated breathalyser for every qualified traffic officer.
Council further supported the recommendation that alcohol screening should become part of the daily operational duties of qualified traffic officers, rather than being limited to occasional roadblocks or special operations.
This is not just a win for the DA, but it is a win for the community at large.
The DA will not relent, we will closely monitor the implementation of the above to ensure that the necessary equipment is procured, additional officers are trained, and dedicated drunk driving enforcement becomes a visible and permanent feature of traffic policing in eMalahleni.