Motoring4.02.2025

Huge change to vehicle licence disc renewals proposed

Automobile Association CEO Bobby Ramagwede’s proposal that all vehicles undergo annual roadworthiness testing before owners are allowed to renew their licence discs is fundamentally flawed.

This is according to driving skills and road safety expert Rob Handfield-Jones, who explained that there is no evidence to support the assumption that annual roadworthiness tests would reduce fatal crashes in South Africa.

Citing statistics published by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), Handfield-Jones said the data suggests no correlation between fatal crashes and roadworthiness.

“The relationship between the percentage contribution of ‘vehicle factors’ to fatal crashes and the percentage of the vehicle parc which is unroadworthy has been broadly inverse over time,” explained Handfield-Jones.

“That is to say, ‘vehicle factors’ has contributed ever less to fatal crashes despite an ever-higher percentage of unroadworthy vehicles,” he said.

“This is the opposite of what would need to be true for the AA’s recommendation to be tenable. The AA should have looked into this before making public statements on roadworthiness.”

Handfield-Jones said that since the ‘vehicle factors’ contribution to fatal crashes has declined so dramatically — a fall of nearly half since 2015 — roadworthiness has become a less significant road safety issue relative to human and road factors.

“The AA’s call for radical roadworthiness interventions therefore has no support in the data,” he said.

“As to the AA’s claim that its proposal would be ‘highly effective’, mandatory regular roadworthiness inspections are already in force for several vehicle classes.”

By law, buses must pass a roadworthiness inspection every six months, and heavy vehicles and minibus taxis require one every year.

“Yet there is no evidence that the roadworthiness legislation for these vehicle classes has led to a more roadworthy vehicle parc generally,” said Handfield-Jones.

“Quite the reverse, in fact. The percentage of unroadworthy vehicles in 2006 was 2.9%, significantly lower than its 2015 level.”

Road Traffic Management Corporation annual statistics for roadworthiness and “vehicle factors” in fatal crashes — 2015–2023

Handfield-Jones said that careful study of roadworthiness by a credible independent organisation is needed before any action is taken on the issue.

“The conclusions of such research would need to be extremely robust to justify the cost and infrastructure implications of expanding regular roadworthiness testing to the entire vehicle parc,” he added.

“It is surprising that the AA has adopted an advocacy position contradicted by publicly available data.”

Handfield-Jones said it was even more surprising to see the AA attempting to curry favour with the Department of Transport with a zero-benefit recommendation.

“What the Association proposes would mean substantially higher costs and inconvenience for motorists,” he said.

“It is the latter to which the AA owes its first duty, not government, whose incompetence and neglect is the direct and sole cause of our road safety disaster.”

Ramagwede called for compulsory annual roadworthiness tests after transport minister Barbara Creecy revealed road fatality statistics for the 2024/25 festive season.

She reported that there were 1,502 deaths on South Africa’s roads over the period, representing a 5.3% year-on-year increase, or 70 more fatalities than recorded in 2023/24.

While the minister focused on driver behaviour, including speeding, reckless driving, and driving under the influence, she also noted that 16,527 were found to be unroadworthy.

Rob Handfield-Jones, Driving.co.za managing director

Handfield-Jones previously said the focus on speeding was simply a revenue-generation exercise for local government authorities, calling South Africa’s speed enforcement approach “blatant profiteering”.

Meanwhile, issues like disregard for other road laws, licence fraud, and driving under the influence of alcohol actually make roads in South Africa unsafe and receive very little attention from law enforcement.

He said that despite Creecy alluding to drunk driving while presenting the road fatality statistics, it continues to receive little attention beyond empty policy and legislative amendments.

“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.”

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