JOHANNESBURG – Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has warned road traffic law enforcement officers that taking bribes contributes to the carnage on the country's roads.

Mbalula was addressing senior traffic law managers during the launch of transport month along the N3 just outside Heidelburg on Saturday.

“We don’t take bribes. No more coldrink. Because you take coldrink, you will be allowing that person to kill your mother, your sister, your wife, your girlfriend, your boyfriend – because of a coldrink.”

At the same time, President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law a bill that could potentially result in motorists disobeying the rules of the road losing their driver's licenses.

Mbalula has called on officers to do their job without any favour.

OCTOBER TRANSPORT MONTH
| Fixing Transport to Grow South Africa Together |

President Cyril Ramaphosa on speaks to Taxi passengers. They are very excited to see him. #OTM2019 pic.twitter.com/0zCnUvJ2eX

— Minister of Transport |Mr Fix 100days (@MbalulaFikile) October 5, 2019

OUTA AIMS TO STOP GOVERNMENT’S PLANS TO IMPLEMENT AARTO DEAD IN ITS TRACKS

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has threatened legal action to stop government moving ahead with the implementation of the Administrative Adjudication Of Road Offences (Aarto) Bill.

Outa says it's in the final stages of its legal challenge and aims to submit its application to the courts next month.

This comes after Mbalula announced that Aarto Amendment Bill would be implemented in June next year.

Outa aims to stop government’s plans to implement Aarto dead in its tracks.

The orgranisation says the plan is fundamentally flawed and has failed in two pilot projects conducted in Gauteng.

It says it's not opposed to plans to improve the situation on the country's roads but the plan, its current form, is will be impossible to implement.

The organisation's Rudie Heyneke said, “If you look at the cumbersome process that must be followed before you get a demerit point at the end of the day, I don’t think that government is ready. If they want to implement this, they want the demerit system to work efficiently to change behaviour, then the system and procedure must be without hiccups.”

Heyneke says the road fatalities are largely due to poor enforcement of traffic laws and this Bill will not address that.

Outa says government needs to fix the legislation before it can get behind it.