Driving-offence points system by year end
By Boyd Webb
Road hogs, drunk drivers and other traffic offenders will run the risk of having their licences endorsed or even confiscated in a matter of months.
After years of talking about a demerit system, traffic authorities are now poised to start the crackdown which will see South African drivers, like their counterparts in many other countries, running the risk of losing their driving licences should they not keep to the straight and narrow.
First in line to feel the bite are motorists on some of the busiest roads - in Pretoria and Johannesburg. A pilot demerit project is expected to begin there in June.
But authorities in KwaZulu-Natal, who were left reeling by reckless holiday traffic, are champing at the bit to join and have called for a demerit system in their province by May.
The rest of the country could follow suit before the end of this year.
Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) chief executive officer Ranthoko Rakgoale said this week that the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) pilot project in Gauteng was to begin by June or even earlier.
Rakgoale said an official announcement would be made by Transport Minister Jeff Radebe.
The system will see offenders not only paying fines but running the risk of losing points from a starting total of 12 on their licences. This penalty approach was first mooted in 1998.
The Transport Department's senior executive manager for traffic law enforcement, Thabo Tsholetsane, said the process had taken so long because a "paradigm shift" on how things were done had been needed.
He said it was important to be able to implement the legislation - which is essentially a complete overhaul of the current penalty system - without flouting the Bill of Rights.
Outlining the system, Rakgoale said that for "principle purposes" each driver would be issued with 12 driving points. Each penalty - for instance driving while drunk - would come with a certain penalty point deduction.
"For instance, driving under the influence of liquor might be six points. So as soon as you are arrested and you are found guilty then it's 12 minus six and you are left with six. Driving with a defective vehicle might cost you one point," he said.
"Now if you accumulate all points up to the maximum of 12 then obviously your driver's licence will have to be suspended."
Drivers would be able to earn back points to get themselves out of the danger zone. Penalties could be erased if the offending driver did not incur more demerits within three-month intervals.
"For every three months you don't misbehave, one penalty point is erased. So it would take you 18 months to clear the six-point penalty incurred for drunk driving," he said
