KwaZulu-Natal’s transport minister, Bheki Cele, on Friday accused the Witness newspaper of being manipulated by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in the ongoing issue of provincial ministers’ vehicles speeding with blue lights.
”The blue light came to the fore three to six months ago. There is one paper that picks on it more than others. That paper is the Witness. Nobody used to complain when there were big convoys like [former premier Lionel] Mtshali’s. The IFP owns the Witness. That’s the reason. The whole matter is being politicised,” Cele said.
However, Witness deputy editor Yves Vanderhaeghen said the newspaper is not owned by the IFP, nor has it politicised the issue of speeding convoys.
”We have not politicised it. This is not a political issue, but a road-safety issue. It is the newspaper’s job to address the concerns of its readers and citizens. The Witness isn’t owned by the IFP. He [Cele] should do his homework. If he thought it was an issue under the IFP, why didn’t he make an issue of it then?”
‘Absolute rubbish’
IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango said: ”He’s talking absolute rubbish. We don’t even own the Witness. He should be addressing the real issue of ‘cowboy-style’ driving. The law is law and it binds every one.”
He said that reader’s letters and SMSs highlight citizens’ concerns over speeding VIP convoys.
The issue of speeding provincial ministers’ vehicles with blue lights has hogged the headlines recently, and some drivers have complained about being pushed off the road.
One was so incensed that he followed the VIP convoy while filming his odometer on his cellphone, showing that he was doing 160km/h as he followed the cars. He then handed the images to the Witness, which published them on April 14.
Cele on Thursday told the KwaZulu-Natal legislature that the motorist will be arrested and prosecuted. The Witness, however, said it will not hand over the details of the motorist.
Mncwango said: ”I want to congratulate that patriotic South African who took that picture. We have to catch the criminals.”
In February, provincial public works minister Lydia Johnson’s vehicle was involved in an accident while she was rushing to the state-of-the-province address in Pietermaritzburg.
Asked whether VIP convoys are allowed to exceed the speed limit, Cele said: ”The question is whether he or she is breaking the law. The answer is no, because there are provisions in the law that you could exceed the speed limit.”
He asked why the motorist had broken the law to film a ”legal vehicle”.
”Is it because it irritates you? By using a cellphone you are breaking the law and endangering other people. How do you know that it was not an emergency?”
Late for meetings
Cele had told the legislature during the provincial transport budget debate that being late for a meeting could constitute an emergency.
”Last week my flight from Johannesburg to Durban was delayed. But at the same time I had an appointment that had been planned for weeks. That, to me, constituted an emergency,” he told the legislature.
Mncwango said: ”Why are they [provincial ministers] late? They have all the means to plan and be on time. He [Cele] is responsible for transport. And he has become culprit number one. That is the core issue.”
Provincial traffic authorities across the province earlier warned that motorists who tried to get out of speeding fines by claiming they were late for meetings would face the full wrath of the law.
eThekwini metro police spokesperson John-Thomas Tyala said: ”We can’t allow that. The [National Road Traffic] Act does not allow for that.”
The chairperson of the Zululand Coordinated Traffic Committee, Paul Oliver, said that in his experience, the courts would ”look at life and death situations to determine whether it was an emergency. I haven’t seen a case where being late for a meeting was accepted as an excuse for speeding.
”If a law-enforcement officer is late for a meeting, he should not be speeding. I would not deem it to be an emergency in the execution of his duties.”
Victor Chetty, chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal Coordinated Traffic Committee, said: ”That’s not protocol. The motorist [who claims he was late for a meeting] will need to explain that to the courts.”
Cele told the South African Press Association that he had personally ”addressed VIP drivers” not to abuse the use of the blue light.
Asked whether the department would attempt to use section 205 of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977, which allows the state to compel any person to reveal their sources of information on pain of imprisonment, to force the Witness to reveal the motorist’s identity, Cele said: ”I am not a lawyer. What I have done is instructed the lawyers to deal with it.”
Section 205 was used extensively against journalists during the apartheid era.
Vanderhaeghen said there has been no indication that section 205 will be used. ”At this stage it is simply at the level of a lawyer’s letter.”
Earlier in the week, the South African National Editors’ Forum condemned a demand by the department that the Witness supply the motorist’s name. — Sapa