The arrest of a local traffic officer on Saturday for speeding caused a number of raised eyebrows the past week. The officer was arrested after he had allegedly sped along the N1 near Matoks at 274 km/h in his Mercedes-Benz C200 Kompressor. Several people expressed their doubts as to whether this could be possible and wondered if there may not be more to the incident than meets the eye.

The traffic officer, Mr Job Munyai, was arrested by the Bandelierkop Police at about 08:30 on Saturday morning after he was stopped by the provincial traffic officials along the N1 for speeding. Munyai, a law enforcement officer attached to the Makhado Municipality´s traffic department, was off duty when he was arrested.

A spokesperson for the Bandelierkop police, Const Michael Ramasimu, confirmed the incident. "Munyai was driving 274 km/h in a 120 km/h zone when he was arrested," said Ramasimu. He confirmed that Munyai is now out on bail of R1 000, which he paid. According to Ramasimu, Munyai will appear in court again on July 9.

The speed recorded for the car that Munyai drove had many experts shaking their heads. The specifications given for the specific model gives the power output as 135 kW, with a very decent 250 Nm of torque, but this will only take it to a maximum of 235 km/h. Given the terrain and a couple of other factors, it seems very unlikely that such a vehicle would be able to get anywhere near 230 km/h.

Munyai was caught by two provincial traffic officials whose patrol car was fitted with the new mobile recorders. It seems, however, that these mobile recorders might come in for serious scrutiny. According to a reliable source, eight people have filed reports objecting to fines that they had received for speeding. In all these cases, the mobile recorders were used.

Several readers phoned the newspaper´s office this week and complained about being arrested for allegedly driving at ludicrous speeds. In one case, a person driving a Volkswagen Citi Golf was apparently arrested for allegedly doing 260 km/h. The top speed of a top-of-the-range Citi Golf is given as 187 km/h by the supplier. Another reader complained about being pulled off in his BMW, apparently doing 279 km/h. He mentioned that the traffic vehicle must have been doing more than 300 km/h, seeing that they succeeded in catching up with him!

Efforts to trace all the cases and establish the facts are still underway and we can unfortunately not publish more details in this week´s edition.

Contacted for comment, the spokesperson for the Makhado Municipality, Mr Louis Bobodi, said that from the municipality´s side they did not condone any actions where people broke the law. He said that the law would have to take its course.