Motoring15.01.2025

Total driver’s licence failure in South Africa

South Africa has killed more road users in the last twenty years than have died on the UK’s roads since the dawn of motoring.

Road safety expert and Driving.co.za managing director Rob Handfield-Jones highlighted this shocking statistic in letters he wrote to transport minister Barbara Creecy in July and September 2024.

The estimated number of deaths on South Africa’s roads is over 70 per day, which he said is the equivalent of a medium-sized airliner crashing with no survivors every day.

“If the latter were happening, air safety would be a national emergency which would seize government with extreme urgency ahead of almost all other issues,” he said.

“I believe road safety deserves the same response.”

Handfield-Jones said that a major part of the problem is poor training, lack of driver skill, and deficient enforcement.

He said that Special Investigating Unit probes into licensing have routinely revealed that up to half of licences under investigation were fraudulently obtained.

Compounding this issue was that even those who legitimately passed their test did so under a woefully outdated curriculum.

“The driving licence curriculum and test date back to 1983 and have been end-of-life for a decade,” he said.

“Yet a process started in 2008 to address matters has not resulted in any meaningful change,” he said.

“South Africa’s post-test driving standards have fallen well behind those of the world’s leading road safety countries.”

Another factor is that only 17% of South Africans have a driving licence. Stated differently, the vast majority of South Africans have no experience with being a motorist or road safety from behind the wheel.

Road safety education is also sorely lacking, leaving most South Africans with insufficient knowledge about staying safe when using the roads.

“People without driving licences — almost all road users — need to be protected by both policy and enforcement,” argued Handfield-Jones.

“This policy and enforcement needs to be directed at drivers, who could, if they had sufficient skill and oversight, prevent almost all crashes.”

He also expressed major concerns about the functioning of the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) and Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).

Handfield-Jones previously told MyBroadband that government has been prioritising revenue ahead of road safety for thirty years.

This is evident not only in government’s insistence that driving licence cards must expire every five years and be renewed, but also in the decisions traffic police make about which laws to enforce.

In a more recent email to Creecy, he pointed to what appears to be a total under-enforcement regarding drunk driving.

“Research on the calamitous levels and effects of drinking and driving pressed the ANC government to reduce the maximum allowance blood alcohol concentration from 0.08% to 0.05% almost three decades ago,” he said.

“That didn’t solve the problem.”

He highlighted that subsequent NIMSS studies showed that the proportion of drivers under the influence at the time of their death in a traffic crash increased from 54% to 58% between 1999 and 2008.

Additionally, their average intoxication level exceeded three times the legal limit.

While more recent data isn’t available, Handfield-Jones said there was no reason to believe matters have improved since then.

“The question is why, and the answer is enforcement priorities,” said Handfield-Jones.

“Of the estimated 500,000 traffic notices issued a month, only about 3,500 (0.7%) are for alcohol.”

Handfield-Jones also told Creecy that he had concerns regarding what he perceived as a reduction in receptiveness to external input by the Portfolio Committee on Transport over the past five years.

“Despite a mountain of worthy proposals being submitted by many individuals and organisations regarding the AARTO Amendment Act and Regulations, almost none of these were entertained by the Committee,” he said.

“Indeed, the only voices the Committee appears to be hearing are those from within the Department of Transport, Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) and Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).”

Handfield-Jones said that this was a break from past practice and suggested that a major critique of South African road safety policy is true — that policy and legislation are informed by profit and vested interests rather than safety.

“This is a dangerous outcome of a situation in which the CEO of the RTMC, a legislated monopoly, has earned up to R10 million per annum,” he said.

“This is far in excess of the CEOs of many large private sector companies who operate under extreme competitive and economic constraints.”

Handfield-Jones implored Creecy to consider the views of the many experts, engineers, automotive industry specialists, and other stakeholders.

“Frankly, the condition of road safety in South Africa is dire,” he said.

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