People who want to be trained as traffic officers at the13 traffic colleges in the country will in future study for three years in order to obtain diplomas that are pitched at NQF level 6.
These colleges will also specialize in certain areas of law enforcement and this means that colleges, regardless of the province they are located, will provide standardized training.
This was announced by RTMC’s Chief Executive Officer, Adv. Makhosini Msibi who was giving a message of support during the community launch of Mpumalanga Traffic Training College (MTTC) yesterday at Mkhuhlu in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality.
Msibi explained that the process was done to ensure standardization of this important career in order to deal effectively with law enforcement and road safety in the country. He also indicated that in future all trainees will further be equipped with crime prevention skills and this is done as part of working towards creation of a single police service in the country.
Speaking at the launch, Mpumalanga Community Safety, Security and Liaison MEC Pat Ngomane has promised the community that priority in recruitment of entry level posts at the college will always be given to local residents.
Ngomane further explained: “Although the college is located in Mkhuhlu, it is meant to service the whole country and the province. This means that all people, irrespective to the province of origin should utilise the college for training purposes. If authorities request to train people, provision should be made for them to bring their people here. So, not only people from this region, province should own this centre, but everybody.
Local people should be jealous about this facility, hence I do not believe that there will be individual who will attempt to vandalise the college.
Community members should be the first line of defence and must ensure that no person removes a brick from this structure. Let alone people who will attempt to throw stones at the building”.
Ngomane mentioned that there was a need for the department to market the college to neighbouring states such as Mozambique and Swaziland. He said “we share our roads with many drivers and passengers from the two countries and South Africans visit their countries on a regular basis.
Training officers from these countries will benefit our people because there will be standard operation procedures. When one visit Mozambique and stopped by a traffic officer, the motorist will be frustrated and left without any option but to pray to the officer for freedom. So, affording them a chance to be trained here, there will be seamless conveyance of goods and people to and from our neighbours”.
The short-term benefits that came with the existence of the college was the 250 job opportunities created. In the main, the people who benefited were from the Bushbuckridge area. Those who were coming from outside the municipality were mainly technical employees such as engineers and those with exclusive expertise.
Currently, there are people permanently employed at this college as general workers, receptionists, instructors, lecturers and assessors.
By its design, the college accommodates 160 learners per learning period. “Here we are today, saying that the life in this college should blossom and spread to communities represented by the people who will get an opportunity to be accommodated in this facility.
By so doing, I believe that people’s attitude will transform so that we have a new cadre of traffic officers on the road who will understand that the work at hand is not for self-enrichment but a community service. Once that idea has been instilled and realised, it will be easy to deal with road users’ attitude on road safety” concluded Ngomane.
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