SLRSA SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT CONTAINER VEHICLES NOW
SLRSA should immediately check all those vehicles taking goods containers from the ports to warehouses in Freetown in particular. Road crashes are part of what we know as normal life but these containers and tipping over, killing people and destroying properties with some fair degree of frequency recently and we are right to be alarmed. We took this picture along Hillside bypass road on Tuesday 9th May, 2023. Normal traffic was severely disrupted and there was no police officer to perform the role of a traffic light. It was total chaos.
SLRSA should take a good look at some of those vehicles, take them off the road for maintenance or take them off for good because they are not roadworthy. In this category also are vehicles that carry stones and sand to building sites all over this city. We are losing too many lives and properties because these vehicles are on the road. We also note that the drivers openly flout traffic regulations prohibiting heavy vehicles from using certain roads. We cannot continue like this.
We expect the people at SLRSA to be strong enough to take these vehicles off the road to save our lives. Otherwise they should resign so people who can handle the pressures of doing public service can take over.
As far as the police are concerned, we are leaving them out of this completely because all they are interested in is booking fees. After collecting their booking fees in the morning, they close their eyes to all the crazy things the drivers do throughout the day. In fact they have influenced the Road Safety Corps so much that the initial professionalism for which Road Safety Corps were known is gone. We believe they also share in the booking fees.
THE BATTLE FOR FREETOWN OPENS: OUR CONCERNS
We now know that our old friend Mayor Kemokai is back in the race to return to City Hall in Freetown. Tolongbo refused to put her on the presidential ticket. That tells us she definitely has unfinished business in this city. She is facing a really strong challenge this time from a businessman called Gento. Unlike Papa Ray, a quiet theatre artist and University Lecturer, Gento is a Freetown guy who grew up in the deprived communities of Eastern Freetown. That means a lot in terms of what happens on June 24 in the Mayoral race. The east of Freetown is packed with people who would normally vote Tolongbo and Gento was closely associated with the RED MOVEMENT until recently. He probably doesn’t want people to talk about that but our job is to put things in their proper context.
Again, Tolongbo people won’t like to hear this but this 2023 race for Freetown City Hall will go a long way, a very long way indeed. Anyway, our concern here is what those of us who live and pay our taxes in Freetown are looking forward to in this city after June.
1. We want some order in this city. It begins with something as basic as how we park cars in this place. The new Mayor should find a place to park cars in the Central Business District. The council is losing a lot of money to street boys who collect money from people entering the CBD for business. Besides, those boys live on the streets. They do everything on the streets and we take the consequences of that recklessness. We cannot continue like that.
2. Street trading cannot be allowed to take place on every street corner. We have to set apart designated areas for such an activity. This should be an issue that all parties must approach with a clear conscience. This idea of using those ordinary street traders as political football is old fashioned and retrogressive.
3. No matter what Mayor Kemokai says, she left this city filthier than she met it. She did make some effort here and there in those early days of National Cleaning Days but her attempt to milk that for her own political purposes caused a big row with the government. It may not be the only reason but the program was discontinued shortly after. We need a CLEAN FREETOWN. We have no choice. We will keep dropping ideas here until we enter the polling booth on June 24.
POLICE OFFICER KNOCKED DOWN AND KILLED
Our hearts go out to that senior police officer who was knocked down while on traffic duty in the Waterloo area the other day. The reports we read say he was putting things under control in a chaotic part of Waterloo called FIVE-FIVE when he was knocked down. We know that people get knocked down by vehicles all the time but this could have been avoided. Why can’t we install traffic lights in such busy intersections, fitted out with cameras and so take our police away from danger? What is so difficult about that?
There is danger waiting to happen at Jui and Portee. We don’t like making such predictions but we pass by these places daily and we are so afraid. We have allowed petty traders to occupy those junctions, competing with commuters. Now, dutiful police officers have to put themselves at so much risk in front of many bad vehicles and poor drivers just to make way for traffic to flow freely.
Again, we have to also note that corrupt traffic police officers like the chaos because that guarantees their daily so-called booking fees – a kind of corrupt daily payments that public transport operators make. Once they pay, the police turn a blind eye to their transgressions for the rest of the day.
This is a great loss to the family, the Force for Good and the country. Let’s do something about traffic police officers putting themselves in harm’s way daily.
SELLING MACHETES IN THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT
We call on the police to promptly arrest retailers and suppliers of what we rightly call a machete in the heart of our city, Freetown. We were in a kekeh the other day when we hit unusually heavy traffic along Siaka Steven Street near the Sacred Heart Cathedral. The next thing we saw was a petty trader who came up to us displaying what she called a kitchen knife and asking us to buy it. We asked if that was the only one she had and replied that she had about a dozen or so around and she was prepared to give us a good bargain.
Just at that point the traffic opened up and our kekeh moved on. That so-called kitchen knife being sold in the CBD occupied our conversation till we reached our final destination.
These days everything is sold on the streets by people who would do well to stay in their villages doing agriculture and getting good money from people in cities who are waiting to buy and consume everything.
It’s not as if the police have not seen this awful trade going on, they have simply ignored it believing it was normal business. We’re not praying for this but one mad guy would buy a machete or two and cause havoc around. At that point the police would go to the media to explain things. They have the opportunity now to prevent serious injury or death.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (15/05/23)
