By Celani Sikhakhane
KwaZulu-Natal’s MEC for Transport and Community Safety has been accused of causing a serious pileup while drunk driving in a car he was never authorised to drive!
According to a government source, multiple people were injured when Sipho Hlomuka crashed the blue light state vehicle on the N3 highway last Wednesday.
Despite alleged efforts by officials at the provincial Department of Transport to keep the crash under wraps, it surfaced this week.
The DA in KZN wasted no time in expressing their concern. The party has penned a letter to Premier Nomsa MaDube Ncube, urging her to launch an investigation into Hlomuka’s alleged incident of drunk driving.
Sharon Hoosen, a member of the Transport Portfolio Committee for the DA in the KZN Legislature, alleged that Hlomuka had decided to get behind the wheel of a state vehicle instead of letting an authorised designated driver transport him.
As well as allegedly being drunk while driving, Hlomuka was never authorised to drive the car in the first place!
“As the DA, we demand an immediate investigation into this matter. We consider MEC Hlomuka’s alleged behaviour to be perilous and irresponsible,” wrote Hoosen.
“Furthermore, we have written to the Department of Transport, urging them to disclose the comprehensive details of the accident, as it seems that efforts were made to sweep the incident under the rug to protect the MEC.”
Hlomuka, for his part, distanced himself from the DA’s allegations, refuting claims that he was driving the vehicle himself and insisting that he was on an authorised trip.
Regrettably, this is not the first time that KZN politicians have been accused of driving under the influence or engaging in car accidents, including incidents involving their official vehicles.
One notable example involves the late MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Meshack Radebe, whose vehicle was responsible for a widely discussed accident that left a teenage boy severely injured when it collided with his family’s car on the N3. Radebe’s blue light vehicle was being driven at high speed.
Former EFF MP Phillip Mhlongo was another individual implicated in drunk driving charges, although he argued that he had consumed cough syrup rather than alcohol.
Mzwakhe Sibisi, a former National Freedom Party MP, was caught with over R5,000 in outstanding road fines.
Pictured above: KZN Premier Nomsa MaDube Ncube and MEC for Transport and Community Safety Sipho Hlomuka, the wreckage of the crash reportedly caused by the MEC (right)
Image source: Twitter
