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Condolences after Ankervas school tragedy

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I would like to express my shock and deepest sympathy on behalf of the Democratic Alliance with the families and friends of Grade 4 pupils, Bulelani Ndarala and Siviwe Mbetshu who were so tragically killed in an accident on the Rocklands Road outside the Ankervas Primary School yesterday.

I know this area very well and I believe that this heartbreaking tragedy could have been avoided. This is a wake-up call that serious attention must be given to safety on this road which carries large volumes of traffic daily. Safety on this road must be addressed as a matter of urgency, before we have to deal with another unnecessary death of an innocent school child.

I spoke to Ankervas school principal Frikkies Bakkes this morning, who informed me that he had sent requests to the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and to the provincial Department of Roads to have traffic calming measures such as rumble-strips and speed humps placed on the road as far back as 2005.

I will be visiting Ankervas with officials from the district office of the Department of Roads tomorrow afternoon in an effort to speed up and improve safety on the road approaching and leading past the school.

We will do inspections at two other schools in the area who have similar dangerous conditions, namely Rocklands Farms School and St Albans Primary School.

I have also written to the Chief of Traffic in the Metro to request that traffic officers be placed on daily duty outside these schools in order to improve safety.

We cannot allow the unnecessary loss of lives on our roads to continue.

Pine Pienaar, MPL

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