Minister's R64k 'need for speed'
2012-07-24 09:14
I'LL SEE YOUR R40k IN FINES AND RAISE YOU R20K: Minister Susan Shabangu has come under fire for racking up R60 060 in traffic fines trumping energy minister Dipuo Peters nearly R40 000 traffic fine tally.
Earlier in July we reported on energy minister Dipuo Peters racking up a total of nearly R40 000 in traffic fines. Now it seems another minster has overtaken Peters in the Ministerial Traffic Fines Grand Prix by more than R24 000.
Mineral resources minister Susan Shabangu is currently on top of the cabinet ministers' podium with a total total of R64 060 in fines.
A statement issued by James Lorimer, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of mineral resources, said that, in answer to questioning by his party, Shabangu replied that she had accumulated the staggering amount of fines between 2009 and 2012.
‘THEY SHOULD BE ASHAMED’
Shabangu's office replied to the DA detailing the amounts in fines, perhaps showing how staying in training helps:
2009 - 2010 - R2750
2010 - 2011 - R29 000
2011 - 2012 - R32 310
Her office did not specify the offences for which the fines were incurred.
Lorimer said: "If Shabangu has a need for speed, she should rather apply this to speeding up certainty around minerals policy, the lack of which continues to cost thousands of jobs."
Read the full breakdown of fines!
He added: "Our national ministers should be setting an example for the rest of the country to follow. Instead, they are showing the rest of South Africa that they have no regard for human life. They should be ashamed of themselves.
"It is only a matter of time before one of our speeding ministers claims a victim on our road."
Top traffic offending ministers 2012:
Mineral resources minister Susan Shabangu - R64 060
Minister of energy Dipuo Peters - R39 400
Agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson - R30 400.
Water and environmental affairs minister Edna Molewa - R12 625
Science and technology minister Naledi Pandor - R9800
Lorimer said: "President Jacob Zuma lamented over the weekend that 'the death of each citizen on the road is unacceptable and painful' and how, even though there are repeated deaths, 'we must not lose our collective sense of weeping'.
"Perhaps the president should invoke the same sentiment in his cabinet, given that their driving behaviour is evidently part of the pandemic that makes South Africa’s roads a killing field."
