Pretoria - The new National Rolling Traffic Law Enforcement Plan (NREP), which became effective 1 October, has already started to register significant successes.
In just two weeks, more than half a million vehicles and drivers have been stopped and checked across the country as part of South Africa's "Make Roads Safe" campaign and the NREP.
Launched by Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele in September, the NREP will see law enforcement officers across the country stopping and checking no less than one million vehicles every month.
In less than three hours on Thursday, 783 vehicles and drivers were stopped and checked in East London in the Eastern Cape.
Drivers were fined for 438 various traffic offences, 32 vehicles were discontinued from use, 33 warrants of arrest were executed, 17 public transport vehicles were impounded due to no transport permits and one stolen motor vehicle was recovered.
Minister Ndebele, accompanied by Eastern Cape Transport MEC Ghishma Barry, visited the road block.
Ndebele said: "We are intensifying our efforts towards safer roads in South Africa. It is the road user who breaks the law who needs to worry.
"Road users who must worry are those who want to cause death and never-ending pain. The driver who needs to worry about enforcement is the driver who wants to injure and maim others. It is these road users that our programmes are targeting.
"A country that has safer roads is a country that has safer provinces, safer districts and safer local municipalities," he said.
The former Kwazulu-Natal Premier said it was time people adopted good behaviour and commitment to safer roads.
"Let this wave for road safety become a river throughout our country and be embraced by all. Together, we can make road crashes history. Working together, we can stop the carnage," he said.
Meanwhile, the Road Traffic Management Corporation will hold a roadblock tonight in Pretoria, targeting motorists driving under the influence of alcohol.
The roadblock will be carried out in partnership with the Gauteng Traffic Police and the Metro Police Department.
