Unemployed youth take to road safety

Employment news

Unemployed youth take to road safety

Sekgabo Kedijang

A group of previously unemployed young men and women will soon be qualified to help make roads safer in North West. This follows the province’s commitment to intensify traffic law enforcement operations by increasing visibility of law enforcement officers.

About 20 young people below the age of 35 are being trained in traffic management to relieve the shortage of traffic officers in North West and to significantly reduce fatal road accidents.

They have been contracted by the North West Department of Human Settlements, Public Safety and Liaison to be part of a learnership programme on Road Traffic Law Enforcement (NQL 4).

The recruits, who are attending the Traffic Management College in Limpopo for 12 months, are receiving theoretical and practical training at different traffic management levels.

Investing in skills

MEC Nono Maloyi said the learnership programme was one of the programmes they were using to address the shortage of traffic officers. “We intend to recruit more young people as this will also reduce the high number of unemployment in the country, which is one of government’s priorities this year.”

Encouraging the recruits to take their training seriously, Maloyi said, “The province is already investing in your skills and we are expecting you to come and make the provincial roads safer for everyone.”

We’ll do our best

Speaking on behalf of the contracted learners, Lerato Jood promised that they would join forces and work as a team to put the province on the map. “We will do our best to ensure that we enforce road traffic law to reduce road carnage in the province upon our return.”

Lerato was thrilled at being chosen for the programme from about 210 applicants and to be given such an opportunity. “The learnership has proved to be exciting, it’s a great learning curve and we are also trained on how to be disciplined.”

Another trainee, Kabelo Ntwayagae, said the programme was a wonderful opportunity as it provided him with extensive theoretical and practical knowledge which he hoped to use in the near future.

For more information, contact the North West Department of Human Settlements, Public Safety and Liaison: 018 387 6061, fax: 018 384 1569, e-mail: motshabi@nwpg.gov.za