Mpumalanga MEC of Public Works, Roads and Transport Mr Gillion Mashego visited Embalenhle on a road safety campaign.
According to him, the campaign no longer target October month, but runs 365 days.
The MEC started the day with boarding of a taxi to get a first-hand experience of the service offered to the public.
During his address to the taxi operators, MEC Mashego said he would like to see more female operators driving long distances.
He further encouraged them to refuse driving not roadworthy vehicles.
During the media briefing the MEC was asked of his plan on the Standerton Road since there are lots of fatalities between Embalenhle and Evander.
He responded that he will go and research to see what needs to be done to reduce the number of accidents.
On the issue on non-visibility of traffic officials during the weekend he said, “We will work with the municipality since they have their own traffic officials.
We will integrate programs to be able to deal with the weekend issues, also ensuring that they have flexi hours to avoid more overtime.
Another concerning issue was the taxi pick-up and drop-offs, especially near Secunda Mall.
Santaco Provincial Chairperson, Mr Fanyana Sibanyoni said the issue was part of the memorandum submitted to the municipality and they promised to attend to it, but so far nothing has been done.
The MEC promised to meet with the GMM Executive Mayor to see that it get attended to.
Vukta said they raised the issue of the Embalenhle-Secunda-Evander four-way stop at Ext 11 with Sasol since they are the once who re-designed it and it is causing problems for motorists.
The MEC seemed to not have a clue of the challenges faced by the municipality when coming to roads issues.
He also promised to set up a meeting with the GMM Mayor to get more information on Graceland – Embalenhle road which is also referred to as an Abbatoir.
The Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport together with Santaco taxi owners and operators also cleaned up the taxi rank.
