Former KwaZulu-Natal premier Lionel Mtshali on Monday said there had never been an ”unprecedented outcry” over provincial ministers’ speeding vehicles, using blue lights, during his tenure.
”During my time as premier, there were no road accidents involving government vehicles with blue lights and there was no public outcry about the use of blue lights,” said Mtshali, who was premier of the province from 1999 to 2004.
On Freedom Day, KwaZulu-Natal provincial minister of transport Bheki Cele said: ”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 Mtshali’s. The Inkatha Freedom Party [IFP] owns the Witness. That’s the reason. The whole matter is being politicised.”
Mtshali said KZN Premier Sbu Ndebele, who was Cele’s predecessor in the transport portfolio, had ”developed an early taste for flashing blue lights, a taste that has come to characterise the arrogance of the current African National Congress administration.”
Mtshali said that during his tenure, Ndebele was the only provincial minister who used blue lights.
He said that the IFP ”wishes to disassociate itself from the suggestions of a conspiracy with the Witness newspaper concerning the issue of blue lights”.
The issue of speeding provincial ministers’ vehicles using 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 convoy.
He then handed the images to the Witness, who published them on April 14.
Cele on Tuesday called the motorist ”a self-made, arrogant, non-accountable individual who purports to be a good citizen and I will dare to argue that he is also a racist”.
He has demanded that the Witness newspaper hand over the name and details of the motorist.
The Witness has declined to do so.
”Just because in this instance the speedsters happen to be senior politicians — and, by Cele’s own admission, himself, whenever he is late for an appointment — doesn’t make speeding excusable,” commented the newspaper in an editorial on Tuesday.
The newspaper reminded the provincial minister and his colleagues that they are not above the law and called on them to use their power with ”maturity and discretion”. — Sapa