South Africa’s Department of Transport told MPs on Tuesday that more than 500 000 traffic accidents occur annually on the country’s roads and of these 80% are a result of driver-related offences. And the national department appears to be no closer to resolving traffic safety coordination between the national, provincial and local government.
These accidents are estimated to cost the government in excess of R13-billion a year and, at the same time, only 28% of issued fines are collected. The state loses about R750-million a year in uncollected fines.
Briefing the National Assembly ad hoc transport committee, transport Deputy Director General Sipho Khumalo noted the view of the Cabinet ”on the need to halt the proliferation of agencies” and that there is still no clarity on the legality of establishing a Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) — which would effectively collect the traffic fines imposed by the provincial and local government.
However, new Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe has already made it clear that he sees no reason to establish another agency as there is already a Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), which was established more than two years ago. The corporation is meant to coordinate provincial and local government efforts to reduce road deaths, introduce uniform penalties for offences across provinces and introduce a new licence demerit system for traffic offenders.
MPs, including African National Congress MP and transport committee chair Jeremy Cronin and official opposition Democratic Alliance transport spokesperson Stuart Farrow, were concerned that the corporation appears to have achieved little in its two years of operation.
This underlined the stance taken in this year’s Estimate of National Expenditure, which in February noted that the RTMC has been created and ”was still not functional”. Department of Transport officials also indicated that the minister envisaged that the RTIA should become a mechanism within the department rather than a mechanism independent of the government.
Khumalo noted that this would require a change to the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act of 1998.
Radebe is expected to provide greater clarity on these issues in his budget vote on June 17. Radebe’s parliamentary officer, Lucky Montana, said that if the RTMC has failed the department ”must take the responsibility” and should move speedily to implement existing legislation effectively. — I-Net Bridge