Month: January 2016

AARTO draft Regulations comments deadline allegedly extended

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JOHANNESBURG – JPSA has today (Friday 29 January 2016) been alerted that the deadline for submissions on the draft AARTO Regulations amendments published for public comment in government gazette 39482 on 7 December 2015 which closed on 7 January 2016 has allegedly been extended to Tuesday 2 February 2016. 

According to DA Shadow Minister for Transport, Mannie de Freitas, this was revealed to him in a letter from Minister Dipuo Peters dated Sunday 24 January 2016. JPSA knows of no formal announcements made by the Department or the Minister of Transport extending this deadline and the SA Government website still quotes the closing date for submissions as 7 January 2016. Continue reading →

Vehicle licence disc renewals – reminders not arriving

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JOHANNESBURG – For a significant period of time now, by many vehicle owners have been complaining that vehicle licence renewal reminders have not been received. While the apparent failure may be attributable to the inefficiencies of the South African Post Office, the RTMC or eNaTIS, the City of Cape Town claimed yesterday (27 January 2016) that this is attributable to National Agencies failing to send reminders to vehicle owners. Continue reading →

Rescheduling road traffic offences to Schedule 5 offences is not the answer

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Howard Dembovsky writes…

It is not unusual for reactionary, emotional and downright illogical statements to arise from the Minister of Transport and the RTMC when it becomes clear that no progress is being made in stemming the tide of road carnage in South Africa, but the latest assertions emanating therefrom are truly frightening and downright reckless.

When announcing the latest festive season road fatalities which amounted to 42 immediate deaths per day arising out of the 1,755 total deaths during the 2015/16 festive season, Ms Peters said “I have been deeply concerned by those caught speeding and the seeming ease with which these speedsters were granted bail”. She also said “The reclassification of all road traffic offences to Schedule 5 of the Criminal Procedure Act will receive high priority in our endeavour and quest for a mandatory minimum sentence for drunken driving, for inconsiderate and reckless and negligent driving.” Continue reading →

Planning your journey – it’s not as simple as it used to be

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Potholes

Lewis Caroll said: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Unfortunately, Mr Caroll lived during the 19th Century and he most certainly did not live in South Africa.

According to the ¹South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL), South Africa has an estimated roads network of some 750,000 kilometres, of which only 158,124 kilometres were tarred as at 19 August 2014. Some of these tar roads are in a fair to good condition and, in a few cases, excellent condition and some may as well not be tarred since they are so pitted with potholes that they can hardly be defined as safe roads upon which to drive. Gravel roads bring with them their own set of problems, not least of which is that most city cars (and drivers) are simply not fit to drive on them. Continue reading →