The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on the MEC of Transport, Safety and Liaison, Limakatso Koloi, to explain why the department has abandoned 32 traffic trainee recruits, despite the provincial traffic department being severely short-staffed.
The 32 traffic trainees from the Northern Cape participated in the remedial programme at the Matjhabeng Traffic College in Welkom, after failing their initial examinations. The trainees thereafter covered their own expenses for a remedial programme, including costs for accommodation, meals, transport and tuition.
While still invested in the trainees, the department requested the college to have the trainees complete their remedial training sooner, in order to curtail the shortage of traffic officers on the province’s roads during the 2024 festive season. This could not, however, materialize.
In June this year, the 32 trainees successfully completed the remedial programme. The department, however, is refusing to hand over their certificates of completion, hindering them from applying for jobs.
In the meantime, the department advertised for a second intake of traffic officers since 2008, appointing 23 additional traffic officers, who were not part of the training programme. This cohort of additional appointments comes from various municipalities across the province, despite the initial plan that the 49 traffic trainees would be employed. They are due to start work on 1 September. They will join the 16 traffic officers, from the training programme, who were appointed after passing the course the first time around.
The remaining trainees have been trying in vain to secure a meeting with the provincial department to address their situation, but the department is turning a deaf ear to their pleas of desperation.
The DA has submitted questions to the MEC, after our questions in portfolio committee meetings remain unanswered. While the province has a serious shortage of traffic officers, and the appointment of 23 traffic officers unrelated to the programme, should also be welcomed, we want to know why the department has chosen not to appoint the 32 traffic officials as a means to recoup funds spent on their initial training. We also want to know why their certificates are being withheld and why the department is refusing to communicate with them.
Given an announcement by the MEC for Finance last year, that the province has allocated resources for the appointment of 50 traffic officers in 2025, the department must also come clean on whether it has future plans to absorb the 32 trainees.
The DA will hold the hold the MEC and her department accountable for deserting its traffic trainees, and for incurring wasteful and fruitless expenditure on their initial training, if they do not urgently resolve this matter.