Update on Ban Blue Light Brigades Petition
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Please support this.... unless you are Julius, Bheki or Jacob.... Thomas Ferreira could be your child....
Please pass on!
From: Ban...@jp-sa.org [mailto:Ban...@jp-sa.org] On Behalf Of Howard Dembovsky
Sent: 27 November 2011 21:27
To: Robyn Gwilt
Subject: Update on Ban Blue Light Brigades Petition
Dear fellow concerned citizen.
I would like to personally and on behalf of Thomas Ferreira’s family thank you for signing our petition to bring about a ban on “blue light brigades” at http://bit.ly/udKCaW.
Since my last email communication last Sunday, an additional almost 14,000 people have signed our petition; bringing the total to just over 39,000 signatures so far. This is quite an achievement, considering that the petition was only made public on 9 November 2011, but since South Africa has 9.5 million licensed drivers on our roads, this represents only 0.41% of all licensed drivers in our country. However, this is not a reason to feel discouraged and it is certainly no reason to believe that your voice will not be heard. We will make certain that it is!
With a little over 3 days to go before we close the petition to public participation at Midnight on 30 November 2011, if you have not yet had your friends, colleagues and family members sign the petition, there is no time like the present to do so. We would like to have as many signatories to the petition as possible to present to the Minister of Transport on 1 December 2011.
Thomas Ferreira is still in a coma, 22 days after he was crashed into by the driver of a blue light BMW X5; although he has now been transferred from ICU to high-care. Our thoughts and prayers remain with Thomas and his family.
A Thomas Ferreira Support Group has in the meantime been set up on Facebook and I would like to urge anyone wishing to keep up to date with Thomas’ progress to visit the page. A concerned signatory to the petition has also kindly set up a Facebook page called the “Blue Light Brigade” community and a few posts have been put up there.
To date, Gauteng Premier Nomvula Makonyane has refused to make public the destination of MEC Humphrey Mmemezi on Saturday 5 November 2011 when the crash happened. For some reason, this seems to be a “State secret” of some kind, further creating conjecture over whether the MEC was in fact in the vehicle or not. Mokonyane cites the fact that this matter is under investigation by the SAPS as her reason for not disclosing this non-vital information with respect to the prosecution of the case.
Wherever the vehicle was travelling makes no difference to the fact that it has caused a young man to be hospitalised and oblivious to what is going on around him; all because its driver has no respect for the law. It is however of interest to many as to where and to what the MEC Humphrey Mmemezi was going in such a tearing hurry. However the National Road Traffic Act makes no provision whatsoever for wanton recklessness on our roads; blue lights or no blue lights and the only way to ensure that those driving these vehicles come to realise this is to remove their privilege to use blue lights.
Please may I ask, as our deadline approaches, that you ask as many people as you can to sign our petition at http://bit.ly/udKCaW (using their real name and email address please) so that when we had our letter to the Minister of Transport on 1 December, a sizable document containing your names and comments can be handed to him as well. We will not however disclose your email address to anyone unless ordered to by a court.
Please note that you are receiving this email because you have signed our petition at http://bit.ly/udKCaW and we have to verify your email address as being genuine. You will continue to receive these emails until such time as this campaign is over, at which time you will be asked whether you wish to continue receiving emails from JPSA or not.
Best Regards,
Howard Dembovsky
National Chairman - Justice Project South Africa (NPC)
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