Port Elizabeth – or the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro as the authorities like to call it – must have the best drivers in the world. The Metro’s Traffic and Licensing department reports in the Special Council Agenda of 24 January 2013 that it has not met its traffic fine targets because; “As the broad majority of road users complied with road rules, fewer traffic fines were issued.”
The target was 10 fines per officer per day for the quarter ending 31 December 2012, but officers issued only six fines per day on average.
Port Elizabeth residents will be interested to note that reason for failing to meet the 10 fines a day target was given as; “The continuous visibility of traffic officers is guaranteed to promote compliance with traffic rules on all roads within the Municipality and fines are issued where necessary”.
This in a Metro where traffic officers knock off at five in the afternoon. The target is being reviewed “in line with the current realities”.
Editors Notes: It was Joseph Goebbels who said; “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
And it was Joseph’s boss (Herr Hitler, first name Adolf) who cut to the chase and said; “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it”
A more recent poster boy for our Municipal traffic spin doctors is Iraq’s Comical Ali – the former Iraqi Information Minister Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf. On April 7, 2003, al-Sahhaf claimed that there were no American troops in Baghdad, and that the Americans were committing suicide by the hundreds at the city’s gates. At that time, American tanks were patrolling the streets only a few hundred meters from the location where the press conference was held, and were clearly visible behind him.
Reach higher, make the lie bigger and we will continue believing it.
Take a drive with me and I will show you 10 fines an hour just in disabled parking spaces.
