Drivers in Grahamstown are doing just as they please because there aren't enough traffic officers on the roads, and under-staffing in the traffic department means the city is losing out on hundreds of thousands of rands in revenue.
Drivers in Grahamstown are doing just as they please because there aren't enough traffic officers on the roads, and under-staffing in the traffic department means the city is losing out on hundreds of thousands of rands in revenue.
This emerged in a report handed to councillors at the Social Services Portfolio committee meeting last Thursday. The traffic department is running at near empty, with only half its posts filled which is costing the department a loss of revenue amounting to roughly R500 000 a year.
Some posts have been vacant for more than six months, according to the report. And to complicate matters, some of the traffic officers have been forced to go on leave to reduce excess accumulated leave that they would have forfeited by the end of June.
The department's unfilled vacancies are as follows:
* Three traffic officers;
* One senior traffic officer;
* One driver's license examiner;
* One vehicle examiner;
* One clerk;
* Three traffic wardens, responsible for enforcing municipal by-laws.
The interviews for these wardens have already taken place. Traffic department head Coenraad Hanekom said that he had seen the human resources manager on three instances, but was not getting far in his request for the positions to be filled.
"One post has been vacant for over nine months. I am now busy on a report that will show how much it is costing the council," Hanekom said. In a previous meeting, chairperson of the social services portfolio committee, Councillor Mthuthuzeli Matyumza, mentioned that traffic services had lost as much as R500 000 in revenue due to the vacancies and he is wanting answers from the human resources department.
Councillor Brian Fargher said the staff shortage was cultivating a culture that drivers could do as they please.
