VIP Convoy being ploliticised

The issue of speeding MECs' vehicles with blue lights has hogged the headlines recently, and some drivers have complained about being pushed off the road.

One was so incensed that he followed the VIP convoy while filming his odometer on his cellphone, showing that he was doing 160 kilometres an hour as he followed the convoy.

'We have to catch the criminals'

He then handed the images to the Witness, who published them on April 14.

Cele on Thursday told the KZN legislature that the motorist would be arrested and prosecuted.

The Witness repeated its stance on Thursday saying it would not hand over the details of the motorist.

Mncwango said: "I want to congratulate that patriotic South African who took that picture. We have to catch the criminals."

In February, Public Works MEC Lydia Johnson's vehicle was involved in an accident while she was rushing to the state-of-the-province address in Pietermaritzburg.

Asked whether VIP convoys were allowed to exceed the speed limit, Cele said:

"The question is whether he or she is breaking the law. The answer is no because there are provisions in the law that you could exceed the speed limit."

He asked why the motorist had broken the law to film a "legal vehicle".

"Is it because it irritates you? By using a cellphone you are breaking the law and endangering other people. How do you know that it was not an emergency?"

Cele had told the legislature during the provincial transport budget debate that being late for a meeting could constitute an emergency.

Mncwango said: "Why are they (MEC's) late? They have all the means to plan and be on time. He (Cele) is responsible for transport. And he has become culprit number one. That is the core issue."
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I know this is me ranting and "pie-in-the-sky" type of stuff

But this issue needs to be dealt with from the highest level of guavamint, and these politicians should be kicked out without any question. Its rubbish, I've been pushed out of the way in rush-hour traffic by at least 2 convoys before and I am damn sure its just because they're late for a meeting or some other useless reason. If I didn't need my car, and all those kind of things, I would block the convoys so that they were FORCED to travel at the speed limit.

*end rant for now*
 
Legal geeks: Is there legal provision for these convoys to break the speed limit?
 
Yes there is...

But there is an important word in the provision, its called "emergency"

We need to be told what constitutes and emergency.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Yes there is...

But there is an important word in the provision, its called "emergency"

We need to be told what constitutes and emergency.
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Exactly.

Although "we" don't "need to be told what constitutes and emergency".

THEY DO :o

:D
 
Well this is true....

But we also need to know, so that we know when we are moving out of the way its for something important, and should we WISH to know what it was, we can find out.

Anywho, I'm just dreaming and all that, accountability is a swear word in political circles in this country.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Yes there is...

But there is an important word in the provision, its called "emergency"

We need to be told what constitutes and emergency.
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Indeed, an emergency it must be.

But if they ALWAYS travel with blue lights and doing 160+, then surely we are not to believe that there is ALWAYS an emergency?!
 
Well I no longer hurry to move out of the way (which might be why i've been pushed out of the way twice)... since i no longer feel like I should put myself at risk for them... I move out of the way when its safe for me to do so.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Well I no longer hurry to move out of the way (which might be why i've been pushed out of the way twice)... since i no longer feel like I should put myself at risk for them... I move out of the way when its safe for me to do so.
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I will not move out of the way. I have not had one behind me yet, but every morning a convoy SPEEDS past UCT, doing way more than the speed limit and I see it go by and curse every day.

The other day, I was standing at the busiest robots in the CBD and there were three police vehilce trying to get through all the treffi. People weren't moving out of the way, which mad me so mad. :mad: These people are doing their jobs, helping protect this country. We should move out of the way for the police, for sure.

But a convoy of X5's paid for with our tax money, in a country where there is still nearly 40% unemployment, for them I WILL NOT MOVE.
 
Only reason I will move is i know that eventually they'll get irritated with me and physically push me off the road or something equally stupid... and i'm not prepared to lose my car so some stupid politician.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Only reason I will move is i know that eventually they'll get irritated with me and physically push me off the road or something equally stupid... and i'm not prepared to lose my car so some stupid politician.
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Actually, as I understand it, one could be prosecuted for not moving out of the way. There again the "stupid (might I add bloody-minded and moronic) politician" might actually have to prove his/her blue light convoy was an emergency, if you didn't move out of the way and were prosecuted.

You may be unlucky in this regard ... Bheki Cele may have been in need of a loo, hence the emergency.
 
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IanC said:
Actually, as I understand it, one could be prosecuted for not moving out of the way. There again the "stupid (might I add bloody-minded and moronic) politician" might actually have to prove his/her blue light convoy was an emergency, if you didn't move out of the way and were prosecuted.

You may be unlucky in this regard ... Bheki Cele may have been in need of a loo, hence the emergency.
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Ya, prosecution is one thing they can threaten you with. But, as you say, they know that they will have to prove an emergency.
 
"Is it because it irritates you? By using a cellphone you are breaking the law and endangering other people. How do you know that it was not an emergency?"

BS... just plain BS... pointing a gun in your face is breaking the law and endangering other people's lives
 
Oh, I do move out the way...WHEN it is safe for me to do so.

There is a claus in the provision that they are not allowed to endanger the public when using the blue lights and blah blah blah.... so they politician will end up losing if they took it too far i think.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Oh, I do move out the way...WHEN it is safe for me to do so.

There is a claus in the provision that they are not allowed to endanger the public when using the blue lights and blah blah blah.... so they politician will end up losing if they took it too far i think.
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I must admit I love your "I think ..." provision :D . I hope they (the politicians) would lose if they took it too far, but I wouldn't bet on it.
 
I have to qualify it... :D.. this is Africa of course.. and our politicians do act like dictators quite often...
 
Relates to this post made by LoneGunman.

Notable: this government is now (wishing to) invoke a 1977 apartheid law against 'journalists source' and freedom of the press:

Paper under fire for blue lights rumpus
April 28 2007 at 12:02PM

KwaZulu-Natal's transport MEC Bheki Cele on Friday accused the Witness newspaper of being manipulated by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on the issue of MECs' vehicles speeding with blue lights.

"The blue light came to the fore three to six months ago. There is one paper that picks on it more than others. That paper is the Witness," Cele said.
-
The chairperson of the Zululand Coordinated Traffic Committee, Paul Oliver, said in his experience, the courts would "look at life and death situations to determine whether it was an emergency. I haven't seen a case where being late for a meeting was accepted."

Asked whether the department would attempt to use Section 205 of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977, which allows the State to compel any person to reveal their sources of information on pain of imprisonment, to force the Witness to reveal the motorist's identity, Cele said: "I am not a lawyer. What I have done is instructed the lawyers to deal with it." -
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kilo39 said:
Notable: this government is now (wishing to) invoke a 1977 apartheid law against 'journalists source' and freedom of the press:
Click to expand...

It's interesting that this government makes use of certain "Apartheid Era" laws when it suits them and then decries the rest of them ... curious.

Cele said: "I am not a lawyer. What I have done is instructed the lawyers to deal with it."
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He sounds like a WW2 concentration camp commander " ... I was just following orders.".

Seems to me Eichmann did the same thing.
 
Cele is an absolute tw@t talking absolute twaddle. I would like the oppurtunity to tell him this to his face.
 
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