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Co-operative Governance MEC Nomusa Dube<\/p>\n
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The Zululand District Municipality has vowed to challenge the constitutionality of the blue-light ban for local government officials, arguing that the directive needs to either apply to all tiers of government or none at all. <\/p>\n
Implementing the ban at local government level implied that those officials were \u201cthe small boys\u201d of government, and \u201cwhipping boys\u201d, a spokesman said. <\/p>\n
This reaction was to a warning by Co-operative Governance MEC Nomusa Dube this week that mayors, councillors and municipal officials who flouted her June directive prohibiting the use of blue lights would face swift action.<\/em> <\/p>\n \u201cThis warning has come about as a result of numerous complaints that I have received from the Road Traffic Inspectorate. I would therefore draw the attention of all mayors to the content of the circular which was given to them in June, prohibiting the use of blue lights,\u201d Dube said.<\/em> <\/p>\n The circular says traffic and municipal police may not provide local government officials with a blue-light escort unless the car is driven by a police officer. <\/em> <\/p>\n \u201cFailure to comply with this directive could lead to the department having to take action against those that are found guilty,\u201d Dube said.<\/em> <\/p>\n However, the Zululand municipality has come out fighting the ban, and is engaging the SA Local Government Association and the MEC on the matter.<\/em> <\/p>\n Council Speaker Mpiyakhe Hlatshwayo said yesterday that while the intention of the ban was for road safety, it was still unconstitutional as it divided the three tiers of the government.<\/em> <\/p>\n \u201cAllowing national and provincial government officials to use blue lights, but not local government, is not fully constitutional. If the intention is about safety, then it should affect all three tiers of government,\u201d he said.<\/em> <\/p>\n The municipality would ask the MEC to \u201cgive it an audience\u201d on this matter. <\/em> <\/p>\n \u201cThrough the provincial arm of government, we will then be able to engage the national government,\u201d Hlatshwayo said.<\/em> <\/p>\n However, the municipality would abide by the ruling until then. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Dube\u2019s spokesman, Lennox Mabaso, said he was not willing to comment on the municipality\u2019s argument as the department had internal processes and communication channels to enable the municipality to engage with it. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n DA Transport spokesman Radley Keys said he supported the directive, but was aware of municipalities that were still using the blue lights, despite the prohibition. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n The eThekwini municipality supported Dube\u2019s directive. <\/p>\n Council Speaker Logie Naidoo said officials did not use blue lights or have escort vehicles. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Co-operative Governance MEC Nomusa Dube The Zululand District Municipality has vowed to challenge the constitutionality of the blue-light ban for local government officials, arguing that the directive needs to either apply to all tiers of government or none at all. Implementing the ban at local government level implied that those officials were \u201cthe small boys\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-14122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}