NATIONAL NEWS - A plan to compel motorists to take practical tests and answer questions before renewing their driving licences is creating an uproar.
Long queues and seemingly overwhelmed and inept licensing centre staff already frustrate motorists.
The latest move, part of new draft regulations aimed at stopping road carnage, has been slammed as impractical and not addressing the root cause of road deaths – corruption.
Transport Department spokesman Tiyani Rikhotso said “extraordinary situations call for extraordinary measures. Our interventions are a response to a dire situation, where we are seeing crashes with drivers never trained to drive.
“It’s our hope these amendments will address current challenges and close loopholes, especially around corruption. “Motorists will be practically tested. “We are looking at various options, from establishing driving academies, where people receive advanced-driving lessons, to having traffic inspectors examine motorists through practical driving tests at driver testing stations.”
The draft regulation – up for public discussion – was published in the Government Gazette on Monday.
It proposes:
- Reducing the general speed limit in urban areas to 40km/h, on roads other than freeways outside urban areas to 80km/h, and on freeways passing through residential areas to 100km/h;
- Ensuring workers are safely transported in the back of properly enclosed goods vehicles and limiting their numbers;
- Outlawing paid transportation of children to school on bakkies; and
- Banning goods vehicles over nine tons on urban roads between 6am and 9am, and 5pm and 8pm.
