RTI pulls over taxi packed with 36 schoolchildren
In a swift crackdown, RTI and Operation Shanela teams have vowed to intensify roadblocks, warning that no motorist will evade justice behind dark glass.
What was supposed to be a joyful first day back to school turned into an operation for the Park Rynie Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) on July 21 – after they pulled over a minibus taxi in Sezela and discovered 36 schoolchildren packed inside a vehicle designed to carry barely a third of that number.
The taxi, sporting heavily blacked-out windows that concealed the dangerous overload, was immediately impounded.
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But the driver’s recklessness didn’t stop there – he wasn’t even carrying his driver’s licence. He now faces a fine of over R2, 000 and, under the new AARTO demerit system, has already accrued two demerit points for the licence violation and illegal window tinting.
In a swift crackdown, RTI and Operation Shanela teams have vowed to intensify roadblocks, warning that no motorist will evade justice behind dark glass.
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“Our teams will remove from our roads any minibus or vehicle with heavily black-tinted windows. The law is clear – there must be eye contact between RTI officers and the driver. We require at least 35% visible light through side windows and 70% through the front windshield,” declared KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport and Human Settlements, Siboniso Duma.
With the #NenzaniLaEzweni operation now in full force, MEC Duma reaffirmed the department’s commitment to protecting innocent lives from reckless motorists – because no child’s safety should ever be hidden behind a darkened window.
