Despite a fanfare of a launch two years ago, 10 years after the idea was first conceived, and after a hearty welcome by the SA trucking industry, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) – intended to unify traffic law enforcement, and the practical interpretation of the law, around the country – has been silent about progress. The introduction of a more uniform system of law enforcement in the current provincial jigsaw of road regulations and their implementation have been a dream of the road freight industry since deregulation became a reality. Eventually, the RTMC was created by the department of transport to unify all the traffic policing authorities in the country – provincial and local. This kick-start to the unification process was warmly welcomed at the time by Road Freight Association (RFA) technical and operations manager Gavin Kelly. He praised the idea that there would be uniform fines across all provinces and uniform methods of operating and checking for overloading. It was also to see a single authority accountable for policing – which is not the case at the moment – and the benefits Kelly recognised were the centralised data-capturing and accident investigation, education and awareness programmes. In essence it was fixing a loophole created by the present Road Traffic Act (RTA), he told FTW. “Through transparent and fair interaction between law enforcement and the operators, it will become clear who the problem operators are and they will be targeted. Hopefully, bribery and corruption will also be reduced to a minimum because technology will not allow officers to solicit bribes.” However, in an interview last week, Kelly could only add that the information that had been made available to the RFA confirmed that the RTMC was up and running – and that the association had received no indication of any datelines for when the unification procedure would be finalised. But Thandi Moya, who handles press enquiries at the RTMC, was confident that there was significant progress to report. “RTMC’s head of enforcement, Ashref Ismail,” she told FTW, “has met with all the provincial traffic authorities, metro police bodies etc. “They have now established Letcom, a committee designed to handle the unification of the country’s traffic laws.” Ismail was unavailable for any further comment before the FTW final deadline.
