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The Amendment Bill

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Summary

The Bill seeks to amend the National Road Traffic Act, 1996, so as to:

  • insert new definitions and to amend others;
  • provide for the suspension and cancellation of the registration of an examiner for driving licences or an examiner of vehicles, if such person has been convicted of an offence listed in Schedule 1 or 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (Act No. 51 of 1977), or has a direct or indirect conflict of interest;
  • provide for the registration and grading of training centres;
  • further provide for the registration of manufacturers, builders, body builders, importers and manufacturers of number plates, including manufacturers of reflective sheeting for number plates, suppliers of blank number plates, suppliers of reflective sheeting for number plates, embossers of number plates, weighbridge facilities, manufacturers of microdots, suppliers of microdots and microdot fitment centres;
  • extend the right to appeal to a manufacturer of blank number plates, manufacturer of reflective sheeting for number plates, supplier of blank number plates, supplier of reflective sheeting for number plates, embosser of number plates, weighbridge facility, manufacturer of microdots, supplier of microdots and microdot fitment centres;
  • require a provincial Department responsible for transport or local authority to register a driving licence testing centre before operating as a driving licence testing centre;
  • further provide for the appointment of inspectorate of manufacturers, building, body builders, importers, including inspectorates of number plates, microdots and weighbridge facilities;
  • prohibit the wilful or negligent issuing of a learner’s licence or authorising the issue of a learner’s licence, endorsing or failure to endorse a learner’s licence, or to produce, print or manufacture any document similar to a learner’s licence, contrary to Chapter IV of the National Road Traffic Act, 1996;
  • prohibit the use of unauthorised aid during a test for a learner’s licence or a driving licence test, and the disqualification thereof;
  • provide for the registration and grading of driving school instructors; to provide for the registration and grading of driving schools;
  • regulate further on international driving permits and foreign driving licence and permits; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

STATEMENTS FROM OTHER ORGANISATIONS

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Cape Independence Advocacy Group

Dear Speaker,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG) and the seventy thousand South Africans who actively follow our work.

We wish to comment on the ‘Electoral Commissions Amendment Act, 2021’, which is proposed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and was published in the Government Gazette on 21 June 2021.

Given our mandate, our comments are made in the context of the Western Cape, although we appreciate and respect that the constitutional rights enacted through this bill will rightfully apply to all provinces.

This bill is essential to restoring some degree of functional democracy to the voters of the Western Cape and we therefore unreservedly and wholeheartedly endorse it.

Through their voting behaviour, Western Cape voters have made it abundantly clear that they do not endorse many of the policy and ideological positions of the South African national government, but are left utterly powerless to resist them because the voters in other South African provinces, who greatly outnumber them, hold starkly different ideological and political opinions.

In terms of seeing their democratic will enacted, for the majority of Western Cape voters, the democratic era has not offered much of an improvement over the apartheid era. It is a statistical fact that, since 1994, the majority of Western Cape voters have never been governed by the political party they voted for, and they have no foreseeable prospect of ever being governed by the party they vote for. As such, they cannot be said to have functional democracy.

One of the few glimmers of democratic hope Western Cape voters do have, is the provision of Clause 127(2)(f) of the national constitution, and 37(2)(f) of the Western Cape constitution, which allows them, at the discretion of the premier who they elected, to have their voices heard on matters which are important to them, without being drowned out by a national majority who fundamentally hold different views.

To deny Western Cape voters this constitutional right would be a very serious infringement of their political rights and freedoms, and would be a clear indication that parliament and the national government are not interested in the constitutional rights and democratic wishes of Western Cape voters.

We therefore call upon parliament to pass this bill at the earliest opportunity, and without objection.

Yours Faithfully

Phil Craig
(On behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group)