Those found guilty of breaking road rules by a court of law will have to complete a mandatory rehabilitation programme under the new proposed demerit system, Parliament has heard.<\/p>\n
The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Amendment Bill will establish rehabilitation centres around the country for such offenders, the portfolio committee on transport heard on Thursday.<\/p>\n
If a driver or taxi operator is arrested and found guilty of a road offence, they must attend a programme at a rehabilitation centre as part of their sentence, Peter Baloyi of the Road Traffic Infringement Agency said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce they have completed the programme, we then reduce the demerit points by three,\u201d Baloyi said.<\/p>\n
Court action is still reserved for serious road crimes under existing law.<\/p>\n
Under the new bill, for other or minor infringements, road users will have a 12-point demerit threshold before their licences are suspended.<\/p>\n
Thereafter, every point gained above the threshold earns the road user a suspension. A licence will be suspended for three months at a time.<\/p>\n
Conversely, if a road user commits no offences in a three-month period, their demerits are reduced by one point.<\/p>\n
Drivers who have breached the demerit threshold, but have not been found guilty of a road crime, may voluntarily attend an approved rehabilitation centre in order to reduce their demerit points by three.<\/p>\n
Baloyi told reporters after the presentation that the bill was still being debated in Parliament, and therefore was not law yet.<\/p>\n
However, the idea of rehabilitation centres would be passed in some form once the bill was signed into law, and the finer details would then be approved.<\/p>\n
He said an example of how the demerit system would work could include a driver receiving two to three demerits for exceeding a given speed limit by between 10km\/h \u2013 20km\/h.<\/p>\n
They, therefore, realistically could commit four or five \u201cminor\u201d infringements before having their licence suspended.<\/p>\n
Learner drivers could also face rehabilitation for multiple infringements.<\/p>\n
A learner driver had a threshold of six demerit points before they would be referred to a rehabilitation centre.<\/p>\n
They would still be able to take their driver\u2019s tests, but would have to complete the rehabilitation programme before the licence was issued, Baloyi added.<\/p>\n