BuaNews (Tshwane)
Siboniso Ntuli
19 November 2008
Dannhauser — The problem of livestock walking on or near busy roads and posing a hazard to motorists is to be addressed by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport through the Road Monitor Programme.
The road monitor programme was officially lunched on Tuesday at the KwaMdakane Sports Field by the MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Bheki Cele.
It is a pilot project undertaken to ease traffic congestion as well as provide employment for the local communities.
The MEC said the department will recruit local people from each area to monitor the roads and alert police of livestock that causes traffic hazards. The police will then move the animals into a safer place until the owners come forward to collect them.
Accidents involving animals on the roads can be extremely costly and can cause death and injury to both animals and humans.
"The loss of even one animal, generally by one of the poorest of our citizens, could mean enormous financial and emotional hardship, so any reduction in the mortality or injury rate would be welcomed," said Mr Cele.
According to programme for every 20km there will be six road monitors.
"The road monitors would also be required to operate on busier sections of surfaced roads, where the danger to the traveling public is the greatest. The programme further has therefore the potential to absorb as many unemployed persons," the MEC said.
He said it was the department's mission to address all the 'bad factors' motorists have to face and allow the safe, easy and convenient movement from point A to point B.
According to department statistics, approximately 70 percent of the roads in the rural areas were affected by domesticated animals kept by the local communities.
Mr Cele said the fencing of the road reserve was found to be impractical, as a result of theft of the fencing material, the use of the strips of land as valuable pasture and the need for the communities on either side of the roads to cross in order to interact with one another.
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