Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Ministry of Transport together with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice, Law and Constitutional Affairs on Wednesday, gave out the report on discoveries made by the Magistrate Traffic
Mobile Court pilot campaign on the roads across the country since its operation from July 1st. The Magistrate Court Public Relations Officer (PRO) Nthabiseng Mohale explained
that the reason for implementation of traffic mobile court is because the court, which handles road cases was overcrowded with such cases. She said in 2017, the
court then decided to choose the days on which road cases will be handled and these were Tuesday and Thursday. The PRO said before the traffic mobile court was
introduced, they used to go out to different places across the country where they would plinth tents as court rooms. “There were massive weather challenges
though, sometimes when it rained or was dusty, our stationary got ruined,” she said. Mohale further said that was when different departments agreed that road fund should provide
the Magistrate Traffic Mobile Court and as soon as the court of law received the vehicle, it started its operation. She said before the traffic mobile court,
people used to complain that the court delays their cases but now cases seem to be handled faster without disturbance. Mohale prompted that the traffic mobile court pilot campaign was launched on July 1st
to 31st. She added that in the duration of a month, it covered the Southern districts of Lesotho except Qacha’s Neck but was later on rolled out to the rest of the country.
She noted that in a month’s period, they had 1 331 cases registered, convicted and sentenced by the court and among those cases there were 259 spot fine cases
which were overdue while 2374 new spot fines were issued. She emphasized that offences which appeared to be on top of the list during the campaign were failure to provide driver’s license, permits offences, failure to display
clearance certificate, absence of fitness certificate, no display of number plate and number plates not issued by registering authority and unregistered
vehicles. She said some of them did not have triangles while others had damaged wipers. “Some vehicles’ windows are tinted and they are too dark to see outside
and this means the car is not save at all,” she insisted. The Traffic Commissioner ‘Mathabo Tšosane said they found it very crucial to educate the nation about how the mobile court operates since there seems to be misunderstandings.
She said the main objective is to ensure that Basotho use roadworthy vehicles for their own safety. “For every country, road safety is very important hence
as Lesotho, we realized that for safety improvements, a mobile court would be a great help,” she said. The Ministry of Finance’s Private Sector Development Manager Folojeng Folojeng
explained that the traffic mobile court is working by the laws set by the government and this means everyone has to abide. He said Basotho vehicles that
are currently hired by the government need to have necessary documents required by the traffic mobile court. He said there seems to be many people who do not abide by the road laws lately and that says the country has to intensify law enforcement.
For More News And Analysis About Lesotho Follow Africa-Press
