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The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has noted with grave concern the unwarranted, malicious and unjustified attacks by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA).
In its statement about the appointment in cabinet, OUTA has raised issues it has dismally failed to ventilate, advance and win through the judicial processes and opt to attack the credibility and competency of Minister Sindisiwe, masquerading and riding a populist wave of the impeding current appointment of the Ministers of GNU and opportunistically attack Minister Chikunga and mobilize for her non appointment.
It is an open secret that OUTA bitterly lost the campaign on the e-tolls and subsequent scrapping thereof. Very shocking is the misguided interest of OUTA in procurement processes relating to the replacement and upgrading of the driving licence card printing machine. This makes us wonder whose interest OUTA is seeking to advance by involving itself in the procurement issues, which process is still unfolding and apparently not yet finalized. The new machine will be replaced once all proper processes have been complied with. OUTA should allow this process to run without any undue outside influence.
In the blind haste to call for the Minister’s exclusion from cabinet, OUTA also ignores progress that has been made to improve road safety during Minister Chikunga’s tenure. The number of road fatalities have been reduced from 14 050 recorded in 2017 to 11 883 last year (2023). While this is still unacceptably high, it however shows that road fatalities are being reduced regardless of out OUTA’s criticism. OUTA would do this country a great service by getting involved in road safety activities and encouraging motorists to change their reckless behavior on the roads as all evidence show that human conduct is a contributor to the country’s road safety record.
Users of the Natis system will also be shocked to hear about the so-called inefficiency of the Natis that OUTA is referring to. More than 1.9 million vehicle owners have been able to renew their vehicle licences on the Natis online system since its launch in 2022 and more are registering daily. Banks and big vehicle dealers are also vehicle registration transactions on the system daily. Surely all these people cannot all be wrong. The improved and efficiency of the eNatis has proven a number of doomsayers wrong as they predicted when RTMC assumed its responsibilities from the Private Service Providers, that milked government billions of Rands. The sterling and visionary of Minister Chikunga and his predecessors, saw unprecedented efficiency and cost saving operations in the hands of the State-Owned Entity.
The RTMC is currently in the process of rolling out the smart enrolment units, which have been shown to reduce waiting times at driving licence testing centres, to KwaZulu Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape after being implemented successfully at the RTMC centres in Midrand and Centurion. Sixty centres will use these units in phase one of the national roll out.
Research on the validity period of the driver’s licences card has found that South Africa’s validity period is within the benchmark and consistent with practice in other developing countries. This matter has been transversed in court and last week (14 June 2024) the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed AfriForum’s application with costs as “there is no reasonable prospect of success in an appeal and there is no other compelling reason why an appeal should be heard”.
There are more compelling and empirical evidence justifying the re-appointment of Minister Chikunga and wish to urge OUTA to consider facts before it makes unwarranted statements that have no merit.