There is one major road rule that is in the planning stages for South African roads. The demerit system changes a lot about how fines will work and will affect us in the coming months of 2020.
Demerit System
The demerit system is the most pressing law being planned in 2020. Said to be in effect in June by Transport minister Fikile Mbalula, this law will change how traffic fines work in 2020 and onward.
Signed last year already in August by president Ramaphosa, this act will carry the same penal values to all traffic fines across the country.
How does it work?
Every driver in South Africa will start at 0 demerits. When you commit an offence, depending on its severity, you could end up getting 1 to 6 demerits. When the demerits add up to 12, your license will be suspended. This suspension will last for three months per demerit above 12. Three suspensions and you are out, your license will be canceled.
Getting rid of demerits can take a long time. For every three months that you have not committed an offense, 1 demerit will be removed.
Since then, the Department of Transport published draft regulations related to the act with several controversial changes. The Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) says these changes are for revenue collection rather than road safety.
These changes are:
- An R100 penalty that is automatically applied to each fine;
- You will have to pay to find out how many demerit points you have;
- You may pay for contesting fines;
- You could end up paying for e-tolls.
A replacement for RAF
The Road Accident Benefit Scheme (RABS) has been put forward in 2020, this one with major moral issues. RABS could be something that might make its way into 2020, especially since the current system has run into financial issues.
At the end of 2019, the controversial RABS bill was revived. It is to be a replacement for the Road Accident Fund (RAF), which could change how motor accidents are treated.
RAF compensated road accident victims who are not fully responsible for its cause. RABS will, in theory, compensate all parties involved in an accident. This has been very controversial and caused a walkout in parliament, so there were too few parliamentarians attending the sitting to pass the legislation.