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An Eastern Cape taxi owner was today found guilty by the Aliwal North magistrate court for bribing a traffic officer.Mr Fikile Twalo, from Queenstown, was arrested in January this year when he attempted a traffic officer with R400 after it was found that his vehicle had no operating licence and two extra seats had been fitted into the vehicle.

The court found Mr. Twalo guilty of the charges against him and postponed the case to January 15, 2016 for sentencing.

The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) would like to warn all motorists to desist from paying bribes because this is criminal conduct and is viewed seriously by courts. Members of the anti-corruption unit are working 24hours-a-day seven days-week to identify unethical conduct and they will not hesitate to arrest anyone attempting to bribe a traffic officer.

Meanwhile 254 motorists were arrested for drunken driving in Johannesburg this weekend in efforts to improve safety on the roads. These are in addition to the 180 arrests made in the North West province. The highest number of people were arrested in Sandton, Midrand and Soweto. All the arrested individuals were detained at police stations and release on bail ranging from R1000 to R1500.

Law enforcement officers have planned massive operations in all provinces throughout the festive season to improve compliance with the rules of the road, curb speeding, drunk driving and reduce fatal crashes.
An analysis of statistics from the previous year indicates that there was a 3.15% decrease in road crash fatalities during the festive season last year (2014 compared to the year before (2013). The festive season period is between 1st of December to the second week of January.

Last year 1293 people died during the festive season period as a result of collisions on the roads compared to 1335 in 2013. Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo accounted for 810 of all the fatalities indicating that more attention will be paid to these provinces this year to reduce road deaths.

Issued by Road Traffic Management Corporation