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A press release from the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) on pending traffic tickets is outrageous and amounts to fear among South African road users, says the Automobile Association.
The AA says the RTMC should immediately retract the statement and apologize to motorists for creating a false impression of the RTMC’s law enforcement ability.
In the statement issued Tuesday, the RTMC notes: “The RTMC advises all drivers to check for outstanding traffic tickets before embarking on their holiday trips. Traffic officers are being deployed on all major routes and those with outstanding traffic tickets will not be allowed to advance. “
“If law enforcement officers follow this approach, it amounts to an immense abuse of power and the RTMC will effectively steal the rights of citizens. It’s amazing that a law enforcement organization, headed by a higher court advocate, could make such an embarrassing statement that it clearly threatens citizens, rather than focusing on how to better enforce the law, ”AA says.
According to AA, the statement indirectly says that motorists with outstanding traffic tickets will be arrested, a major violation of SA laws.
“The only time a road user can be stopped on the roadside is if an arrest warrant is issued against their name. Preventing someone from continuing on a trip due to a pending traffic ticket amounts to an arrest without following due process, ”says the Association.
RTMC spokesman Simon Zwane told TimesLIVE on Friday that only motorists with arrest warrants against them will be pulled over on the side of the road, contradicting the RTMC press release earlier this week that said that “Those who are found with pending traffic tickets will not be able to continue.”
Drivers with arrest warrants in their name will be allowed to continue their trips only after they have paid outstanding fines, which in some cases will be possible on the side of the road, he said.
The AA says that instead of the RTMC looking for new ways to generate income, it should focus its energies on improving the education of road users and protecting road users by enforcing the laws as they are written.
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