{"id":47296,"date":"2026-06-13T18:27:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T16:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/accidents\/extortion-activities-at-an-illegal-by-pass-after-the-cardington-bridge-closure-are-condemned\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T18:27:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T16:27:44","slug":"extortion-activities-at-an-illegal-by-pass-after-the-cardington-bridge-closure-are-condemned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/accidents\/extortion-activities-at-an-illegal-by-pass-after-the-cardington-bridge-closure-are-condemned\/","title":{"rendered":"Extortion activities at an illegal by-pass after the Cardington bridge closure are condemned"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Northern Cape experienced severe flooding between April and May 2026 that devastated communities across the Province, including the John Taolo Gaetsewe District.<\/p>\n<p>In the John Taolo Gaetsewe District, the Cardington Village was among those hardest hit &#8211; the bridge on that road was washed away, and the department responded by communicating alternative routes to affected road users.<\/p>\n<p>We understand what this road means to commuters.  It connects the Northern Cape to neighbouring provinces and countries. We also understand the burden that comes with the rising fuel costs due to longer detours. But hardship does not justify illegal conduct and what is happening at Cardington right now is illegal conduct.<\/p>\n<p>An illegal bypass has been erected. Money is allegedly being exchanged for passage.<\/p>\n<p> This is unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>Commuters run the risk of forfeiting insurance coverage and other legal claims such  the Road Accident Fund (RAF). <\/p>\n<p>Last week I met with the Cardington community. We&#8230;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/news.aspx?s=1&#038;i=77678&#038;page=extortion-activities-at-an-illegal-by-pass-after-the-cardington-bridge-closure-are-condemned\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more on Arrive Alive <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Northern Cape experienced severe flooding between April and May 2026 that devastated communities across the Province, including the John Taolo Gaetsewe District. In the John Taolo Gaetsewe District, the Cardington Village was among those hardest hit &#8211; the bridge on that road was washed away, and the department responded by communicating alternative routes to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/\/ckfinder\/userfiles\/images\/Screenshot%202026-06-13%20121949.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2149],"tags":[2371],"class_list":["post-47296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-accidents","tag-northern-cape"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/\/ckfinder\/userfiles\/images\/Screenshot%202026-06-13%20121949.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}