On Thursday, 24 November, the Justice Project South Africa (JPSA) released a statement regarding the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Elizabeth Peters, who is repeating threats she levelled last year, as well as making additional ones in Parliament.
According to Howard Dembovsky, the National Chairman of the JPSA, last year the Minister and the CEO of the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) threatened law-breaking motorists, in particular those who drive at speeds above the speed limit and those who are under the influence of alcohol, with extended periods of imprisonment prior to being released on bail before being tried in a criminal court.
He continued by saying, “This year, the Minister appears to be doing exactly the same thing. This comes in spite of her statement last year, to the effect that the Department of Transport was working closely with the Department of Justice to urgently have these crimes rescheduled to Schedule 5 offences under the Criminal Procedure Act.”
“This year she is levelling the same threats and making the same statements, thereby indicating that no progress has been made in that regard, probably because of the pure absurdity of it all,” Dembovsky said.
He went on to say that it would appear that some “road safety commentators” are blaming the Department of Justice for the incredibly low conviction rate of those charged with driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor or narcotics, saying that “The Department of Justice did not take the prosecution of road offenders seriously”.
According to Dembovsky, this is a very dangerous and somewhat foolish statement to be making, given the fact that there is a lot more to convicting persons who are alleged to have been under the influence of alcohol than simply arresting them. It would appear that both the Minister and these “road safety commentators” are unaware of this fact.
While the JPSA has a deep-rooted and strong dislike for motorists who drive when intoxicated, the JPSA is also acutely aware of the fact that proper evidence is a fundamental requirement in criminal trials, and it is and remains unhelpful that blood test results from the State-run laboratories typically take ages to come back, if indeed they ever do come back.
Simultaneously, the JPSA is a big fan of a piece of legislation called “The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa” which is supposed to be the supreme law of the country, and states that every accused person has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The police’s standard operational procedures already dictate that a person who is arrested for an offence involving alcohol must be detained for a minimum of four hours before being released on bail.
In reality, such detention periods easily exceed three times that. The release on bail is not to be viewed as constituting the excusing of such an accused person from the crime they stand accused of; it should be seen to be exactly what it is – a warning to appear in court to be tried for that crime.
Dembovsky says, “What is vitally important is that, particularly with driving under the influence offences and in order for people to take the prosecution thereof seriously, the matter must be dealt with swiftly and those who are convicted must ‘feel the pinch’. “
To suggest, as the Minister does, that accused persons should be punished prior to even seeing the inside of a court is quite simply absurd and is equal to adopting principles which have no regard for due process, the criminal justice system and/ or the Constitution.
He further says that the carnage on South Africa’s roads is a serious matter that should be tackled with all the vigour and seriousness it deserves. However, taking short-cuts, ignoring the very real problems and engaging in threats is not the way to go about it.
If and when the Department of Transport, the Minister and the traffic authorities alike wake up and begin to understand that professionalism and addressing the real underlying problems will go a long way to curing the ills which play themselves out on our roads daily, then and only then will changes in the behaviour of motorists (and other road users) start to come about.
“In the meantime however, people have become less and less sensitive to the repeated threats levelled by the Minister and others in her employ. The JPSA urges motorists to adopt a responsible approach to driving and to avoid breaking the law. There is simply no excuse for drink/ drug driving and in the process, putting everyone’s safety at risk,” Dembovsky concluded.
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