Huge volumes of traffic are expected on the roads leading to Limpopo during the Easter weekend as Zion Christian Church members head for the holy city of Moria following a five-year break brought about by the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.
The St Engenas Church denomination only held smaller, highly regulated gatherings after the outbreak of the virus.
The star sign denomination, led by Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane, which has a higher number in membership, has not held any gatherings.
However, Sunday World has learnt that church members can expect a different environment from the previous one, where activities such as the popular mokhukhu, nkedi dances and choirs will not be permitted.
This is an unusual step in the church’s 115-year history, where at least 2-million pilgrims normally gather to celebrate, worship and pray in song and dance.
The church does not comment on its activities, but Limpopo MEC of Transport and Community Safety Suzan Mathye launched the 2025 Easter Road Safety at River Cross near Burgersfort in the Fetakgomo-Tubatse Local Municipality on Friday, with the theme “It Begins with Me”.
Mathye acknowledged that there is going to be a high traffic volume due to the other ZCC’s decision to resume their Easter pilgrimage after five years.
“We are anticipating huge traffic this year, hence we are going back to the drawing board to come up with extra safety measures,” she said.
Mathye said they have identified several roads that are hotspots for accidents and they will be focusing on them.
“Such roads are the N1 between Kranskop and Mokopane and Botlokwa, the R37 in the Burgersfort area, R36 between Mokgoloboto and Lenyenye in the Greater Tzaneen area, the R71 around Paledi Mall in Mankweng, R81 in the Mooketsi area and more.
“Today we decided to launch this campaign here in your area because it has come to our attention that this road (R37) has too many pedestrian fatalities due to people who go on drinking sprees, and domestic animals that roam the roads in this area also contribute to a number of road carnages,” explained Mathye.
Limpopo police commissioner Thembi Hadebe pointed out that simple things that cause most of the road accidents are drunken driving, texting while driving and fatigue.
“These are human errors, and if avoided we would have saved so many lives on our roads,” said Hadebe.
