City and Western Cape Government oppose proposed national traffic service
9 December 2016
At the recent National Traffic Indaba, National Minister of Transport, Dipou Peters, made remarks on her intention to establish a national traffic service. Firstly, the proposal of the Minister is unconstitutional and the City of Cape Town and Western Cape Government are opposed to the establishment of a so-called ‘single national traffic law enforcement service’ and have placed our opposition on record at Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) meetings and other stakeholder engagements. The Minister is correct that an RTMC shareholder committee was established to review traffic enforcement across the country, but she fails to report that the City of Cape Town (and now possibly other cities) and the Western Cape Government are not in agreement with the recommendations.
The simple facts are that the proposal is a clear violation of the Constitution and seeks to encroach on the powers of local government and that the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town will apply to court to challenge this breach of the Constitution. In fact, we would estimate that several other metro municipalities will make similar court and Constitutional challenges to prevent the powers of their local authorities being undermined. Not only is the proposal by the National Minister a violation of the Constitution, but it also violates the powers bestowed on local government by the National Land Transportation Act (NLTA).
It would not be the first time that we have had to take legal action to stop bad planning and legislation by the National Government. We were compelled to take similar action to stop the flawed implementation of AARTO which had had a crippling effect on traffic enforcement in Gauteng, followed by a reduction in road safety and an increase in road fatalities. By contrast, the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government, which had therefore escaped the implementation of AARTO, were able to stabilise road fatalities and in some years even reduce these deaths. Recent newspaper reports indicated that other cities such as Tshwane and Johannesburg have started to question AARTO as well and have indicated that they no longer want to operate subject to the Act as it is incapacitating effective traffic enforcement.
The Minister is also completely wrong in her assertions that the establishment of a national traffic service will remove fragmented and ineffective traffic enforcement. We would argue that the establishment of a national traffic service will not reduce fragmentation. One sees the fragmentation and the lack of communication and information sharing between different South African Police Service (SAPS) police stations, which are run as a national policing service. There is no evidence to suggest that centralising traffic enforcement will improve it. In fact, our experience with policing strongly suggests the contrary, which is why many are opposing the single police service being proposed by National Government as well. It will make traffic enforcement less accountable and less responsive to communities. What does the management of a national traffic service sitting in Pretoria know of traffic problems in Nelson Mandela Bay or Cape Town?