THIS PETITION IS NOW CLOSED TO PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

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The final count was 46,646 signatures as at 00:01 on 1 December 2011. All future signatures will be ignored.

The petition is to be delivered to the National Department of Transport at 08:00 on 1 December 2011.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this petition.

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Petition to bring about the immediate banning of "Blue Light Brigades"

To: The Minister of Transport
Subject: Cessation of the use of blue lights in non-police emergency vehicles

Dear Minister Ndebele,

For a considerable amount of time now, blue flashing lights have been in use by a number of individuals who are not law enforcement officers, including but not limited to vehicles transporting politicians.

Notwithstanding that there is a provision allowing an MEC to authorise the use of blue lights, this has been grossly abused, thereby causing a proliferation of so-called "blue light brigades" that regularly disregard traffic laws, including the provisions of Sections 58, 59 and 60 of the National Road Traffic Act, 93 of 1996 (as amended) with respect to emergency vehicles.

Furthermore, vehicles operated by the so-called "VIP protection unit" have seemingly been granted carte blanch to commit a variety of road traffic offences and enjoy impunity in doing so, regardless of whether they are reacting to an emergency or not.

There have been multiple instances of these “blue light brigades” endangering other road users, causing serious crashes, etc., the most recent of which has left an 18 year old brain damaged.  The abuse of blue lights essentially means that senior government officials and their drivers are providing a poor example to the road-using public which goes against the principle of leading by example, and which adds to the carnage on our roads.  Already we have the public saying “if the taxi drivers can do it, so can we” and now the public have another poor example which they will want to follow.

Given that South Africa is signatory to the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety action plan we, the undersigned hereby call upon you to immediately and without delay withdraw all authorisations for the use of blue flashing lights and sirens that have been issued to any non-law enforcement agency registered vehicles and/or are not being used in a strict emergency situation.

Should urgent attention to this matter and an immediate banning of the use of blue lights in non-emergency, non-law enforcement vehicles not be forthcoming by 31 December 2011, the matter will be escalated to the United Nations for further action.

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PETITIONERS PLEASE NOTE:

This petition is not a joke or a feeble attempt at making a noise that won't be listened to. It is a serious effort, dealing with a serious matter and MUST be treated as such.

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS PETITION TO AIR ANY RACIST OR POLITICAL DIRTY LAUNDRY.

This petition has been created for ALL concerned South Africans to add their voice to - not for a "select group" to use it as a platform to insult their fellow citizens. Please keep your politics to yourself.

Please use the "Anonymous" option if you do not wish your name to be displayed publicly. PLEASE DO NOT go further to not provide your real names (First and Surname) as we will have to REMOVE you from the petition when we close it for presentation to the Minister of Transport.

Similarly those using bogus email addresses will cause your signature to be removed when we finalise the petition. We will not share your details with any other party except the Department of Transport - where only your name will be provided. If you do this, you are silencing YOURSELF!

Periodic email updates will be sent to all those who sign this petition and if mails are returned as undeliverable, those with invalid email addresses will be deleted from the final petition.

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