Thanks to Professor MA Middleton from the University of South Africa who has been an inspiration for me on this topic from the beginning of my research. The few I can mention are: Pastor MG MuhaIi, my friend Matodzi, Mrs Jetsek Van de Watt - a librarian in the Directorate of Traffic Safety, Mr Silas Chuene in the Road Transport Technology Library of the CSIR and Mr SJ Cornelius in the Department of Justice . I would like to thank Mrs 5J Clarke of the University of Zululand who so patiently managed to put up with my poor writing and constant changes in preparing the final draft of this thesis.
Given the problems encountered, I directed my research towards finding a mechanism whereby: errant drivers would be successfully tracked down and brought to justice without delay, our courts would be relieved of the existing burden of traffic cases crowding our calendars of the courts, sanctions equal to the behavior of a road user would be imposed, a quick, economical and efficient way of dealing with traffic offenders would be found and the criminal stigma attached to traffic violations would be removed. traffic. These measures are designed to protect the constitutional rights of drivers, improve driver behavior and increase society's interest in road safety.
OPSOMMING
PROBLEM STATEMENT
This is a terrifying finding when you compare the number of vehicles in the United States to that of South Africa. As early as 1974, some South African writers expressed their displeasure at the excessive use of criminal sanctions, particularly for traffic offences. In his opinion, some traffic offenses should be deleted from the criminal law, but on the other hand, he admits that some traffic offenses have a certain place in the criminal law.
The Commission of Inquiry into the Effectiveness of Traffic Law Enforcement in the Republic of South Africa found that approximately 7fJ.6 of traffic offenders for whom arrest warrants have been issued cannot be traced due to false addresses, contempt of justice by failing to respond to the court documents. According to SH Pieterse(32), the criminal proceedings are unnecessarily time-consuming and excessively harsh in light of the limited sentences that the courts actually impose for these crimes.
RESEARCH METIIOD
The Road Traffic Regulations have been issued in respect of each of the orders and are modeled. The Act as well as the regulations are modeled after the model and regulations of the Transvaal. Pursuant to section 74 of the Act, a new system called the Road Transport Quality System (RrQS) has been introduced.
After the Minister of Justice has considered a report from the Advisory Committee, the decriminalized offenses are specified in a notice in the Government Gazette. Pursuant to s 1 of the Act, the representative officer will be an employee of a responsible authority.
PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN OBTAINING RESEARCH MATERIAL
The statistics on which this research is based refer mainly to the former Republic of South Africa. Adjudication of minor traffic offenses has been and still is the subject of many discussions and researches throughout the civilized world. A 1992 report on administrative adjudication of minor traffic offenses in Illinois by the Northwestern University Traffic Institute (I) shows that a majority of respondents favor administrative adjudication of minor traffic offenses.
Respondents explained that administrative decision-making would unburden the courts, that minor traffic cases would not require the attention of a district judge to be properly heard, and that the process would require fewer officers to testify. To overcome the problem of traffic cases causing overcrowding in the courts and the high percentage of offenders who go unpunished, states have taken different approaches to the trial of traffic cases.
ADMINISTRATIVEAPPROACH IN NEW YORK
The NewYork State Administrative Adjudication program is operated by the Traffic Violation Bureau (TVB) of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Where the driver is caught speeding 25 miles per hour over the limit, orifa conviction for the offense may result in license suspension and an appearance before the hearing officer is mandatory. The hearing consultant is a lawyer who has passed a civil service exam, had a month's training and is employed full-time in the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The notice must contain information about the driver and vehicle occupants. Before the hearing officer can determine the appropriate sanction, the driver's prior records, if any, must be checked.
TIIE QUASI-]UDICIALAPPROACH, TIIE SEATI1.E MODEL
Over a period of more than 20 years, many institutions and individuals in South Africa have conducted research on the decriminalization and administrative adjudication of traffic offences. The main motivation for decriminalizing some traffic offenses is to relieve the criminal courts of some of the existing burden imposed on them by traffic law cases. Procedural decriminalization of some traffic offenses, as proposed in this study, refers to procedural means where the machinery of justice is facilitated by administrative sanctions.
Although these authors could not define the criteria of decriminalization in clear terms, their contributions to this field of study, which will be referred to later in this chapter, serve as guidelines for the decriminalization of some traffic offenses. Most traffic offenses are disposed of through the procedures provided by either s 57 or s 341 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
THE VIEWS OF CEIITAIN WRITERS AND INSTITUTIONS
Removing traffic offenses from the scope of the criminal law allows the police and the courts to concentrate on the correct criminal cases to investigate and decide. In 1993, in accordance with Section 3 of the Decriminalization Act (47), the Minister of Justice appointed an advisory committee (48) to advise him on the possibility of decriminalizing certain traffic offences. A sentence of nine months' imprisonment was reduced to one month's imprisonment. The circumstances of the case and the seriousness of the case.
Section 7A of the Act provides for the establishment of a National Road Traffic Law Enforcement Commission, which advises the Secretary of Transportation on law enforcement and other related matters. The power of the judge is an integral part of the traffic enforcement system. Each of the fifty states of the United States has its own traffic laws and a state police force or highway patrol for enforcing the traffic laws.
It is clear that traffic law enforcement measures such as wheel clamping and removal from the motor vehicle are effective tools for parking violations. For the system to be effective, it must be ensured that there is a link between the identity of the driver and the driver's record. A noted weakness in the current traffic law enforcement system in South Africa is that it places more emphasis on apprehending the individual offender rather than introducing measures that will control driver behavior and traffic flow in the long term.
NW Hiemstra (66) believes that citizens do not see traffic violations as the cause of most traffic accidents. They view enforcement of traffic laws as a means of generating revenue, mainly because it emphasizes the apprehension of the individual offender rather than prevention prior to the violation. Citizens cannot be expected to read every Provincial Government Gazette so that they are aware of all changes in the traffic laws.
SfATISI'ICS
- PROSECUTIONS FOR TRAFFIC OFFENCES
- TRAFFIC CASES IN COURTS
- RELEVANTPROVISIONS
- INTRODUCTION
- OBSERVATIONS
- TRAFFIC IAW ENFORCEMENT IN SOUTII AFRICA
- TIIE DECRIMINAUZATION OF MINORTRAFFIC OFFENCES
- STEPS TO EFFEIT DRIVER-CONTROL
A number of traffic cases in the Magistrate's Courts are mainly based on notices issued in accordance with Article 56 of the Law (5). The table below shows a number of prosecutions made in terms of s 56 of the Act in 1989. The purpose of the questionnaire was to obtain statistics on traffic cases coming to our courts.
Inefficiency in law enforcement is one of the factors that cause anarchy on the roads. In S v Shange (25) great emphasis was placed on the fact that section 57 of the Act must be interpreted as being of an administrative nature and that a defendant is deemed to have been convicted and sentenced as a result of administrative action carried out by a person. who is not a judge, i.e. a clerk at the court who takes care of the admission duty as prescribed in section 57, subsection of the Act. This, in my opinion, leads to a lack of respect for law enforcement on the part of motorists.
Convictions for serious traffic offenses are currently recorded by the Criminal Bureau of the South African Police Service. The issue of reprimands in terms of Article 56 of the Act contributed to the problem of multiple appearances to a large extent. Representations together with a copy of the notification and written comments of the official who issued the notification shall be submitted to the Commissioner of Representations.
By suspending the provisions of section 133(5) of the Act in relation to local authority by-laws relating to the stopping and parking of any vehicle on a public road or part thereof, promulgated under section 133(1)(b) of the Act . The right to be heard by an impartial tribunal is one of the principles of natural justice. The procedure provided for in the Decriminalization Act contradicts the basic legal principles of the modern legal system.
BmUOGRAPHY
ARTICLES
34; Road Safety Management System in South Africa.” Paper presented at the Prevention Routere Internaiionale Annual General Assembly, Lisbon.
REPORfS
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Research group: Research into traffic law enforcement: effects of law enforcement on road user behavior and traffic accidents. Report of the Task Force on Administrative Justice of California Traffic Violations: Feasibility Study. Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Penal System of the Republic of South Africa.
South African Paving Council Research and Development Advisory Committee Project Report 192/90: The Registration Employment and Evidence of Previous Traffic Convictions, including the Implementation of a Points or Offense Counting System within NaTIS.
BOOKS AND TIIESIS
