South African motorists can expect to see the Department of Transport’s big projected road regulations being implemented shortly. This is according to Transport Minister Spokesperson, Ishmael Mnisi, whom has confirmed this to BusinessTech.

What does this entail?

• Transporting children in the back of bakkies will be banned.
• Bakkie drivers will be limited to carrying a maximum of 5 people in the vehicle’s load bay.
• Stricter speed regulations for Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HCV’s) based on their weight. HCV’s will also need to have stickers displaying the maximum speed they are allowed to drive.

It’s projected that the first of these regulations will come into effect from 1 May 2017.

It was also confirmed by Mnisi that other major proposed regulations, first communicated in 2015, would be open for public review within the coming months, with the intention that the rules would be applied formally within the next year.

These other major proposed regulations include:

• Drivers will have to undergo a practical re-evaluation when renewing a licence.
• A complete review and revamp of the current K53 test.
• Speed limits to be reduced from 60km/h to 40km/h in urban areas, from 100km/h to 80km/h in rural areas and from 120km/h to 100km/h on freeways running through a residential area.
• Goods vehicles above 9,000kg Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) to be banned from public roads during peak travelling times.

It’s not all grim news at the end of the day. In a country with one of the highest road death tolls, most of the changes are for the better, wouldn’t you agree?

• Children should not be allowed in the back of bakkies.
• Reviewing drivers will improve the quality of drivers on our roads which will in turn equal less accidents.
• Speed does kill…so the changes to the speed limits will also again reduce road accidents and pedestrian deaths.

Although 40km/h…wait WHAAAT?!

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