Shongweni Expo 2013

Monica Pretorius says in 1976 her dad dated her mom on a
BSA motorbike like this B31 ‘Ducktail Boney’.
She found it a bit weird thinking of her parents
as gum-chewing, ducktail rebels.

KZN’s biggest Car, Truck, Bike and Outdoor Expo this year started with more than 300 hauliers in KZN attending a “Changing Attitudes” conference at the Shongweni Polo Club.

Quoting a letter in The Witness, the commercial manager of the N3 toll operator Con Roux said it seemed to a South African returning from overseas that in the past 11 years, local road users had completely abandoned the laws of the road.

Transport MEC Willies Mchunu

A brave Transport MEC Willies Mchunu faced up to a barrage of criticism from the no-punches-pulled truckers. He said three-quarters of South Africa’s freight used Durban or Richards Bay, with 25 million tons of goods moving along the N2 and N3 each year.

He told the truckers fierce competition among their numbers often saw some hauliers not only overloading their trucks, but also overworking their drivers.

Mchunu pointed out that “overloaded trucks capsize” and warned the fleet operators that “an overworked and tired driver is a time bomb waiting to explode”.

A baking hot Saturday provided the perfect weather for the main day of the show, with big screens set up to show the rugby Test between the All Blacks and the Springboks, and the bands Fugly and Unrehearsed 12 consoling the Bok fans on Saturday night.

Pro Creations from Waterfall near Howick provided extreme 4x4 rides while Hover Dynamics flew from Mpumalanga to take punters on barn-storming helicopter flips.

Tallyn Tregar and Emma Lovell-Greene, both 12,  were
among the many female fans of all ages who thronged
the trucking display at the expo. 

The hot weather ensured that all the the ice cream had been sold out by 4 am.

Overcast weather on Sunday saw the coffee-sellers doing brisk business. Amidst the big lorries (that had all the wives stop their husbands for a closer look) and buzzing model cars that raced through people’s legs, the stars of the show were tiny new teardrop caravans built by Jetstream in Pinetown.

The expo ended on Sunday afternoon with a gospel show that featured the Zululand Gospel Choir with Thina Zungu and Thulani Ndlela.