uMhlathuze ready to implement truck levy plan
uMhlathuze's mayor says the city's hoping to soon implement its plan to start charging trucks carrying coal to the Port of Richards Bay.
Late last year, the municipality said heavy-duty vehicles would have to fork out R30 per tonne of load to gain access to the port.
It says the money collected will be used to fix the local roads.
Last year, the city threatened to take Transnet to court over the traffic chaos on its roads caused by incoming and outgoing trucks.
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Companies have had to get onto the road to move their products due to the poor state of Transnet's rail network.
Mayor Xolani Ngwezi says the proposed fee will also be used to pay traffic officers controlling traffic around the port.
"The infrastructure is getting destroyed; there are environmental issues, especially from the coal trucks. We are really suffering, and we are also getting depleted in terms of our resources.
"The money that we pay workers means that we must pay for more resources for overtime and all other related issues. We end up compromising law enforcement in other arrears of the city since with don't have a lot of staff under traffic."
