The CEO of the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) Advocate Makhosini Msibi says in terms of the existing National Road Traffic regulation South Africans can only renew their drivers licence after five years.
Msibi says the periodic drivers licence with compulsory testing that was once discussed as an option during the debate on Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Act and the demerit point system, was never adopted.
He says traffic officers are empowered to order the holder of any drivers licence to undergo a retest if they suspect that the licence was acquired fraudulently.
“Any traffic law enforcement officer, if he suspects you have acquired your driver’s licence fraudulently he can direct you for retesting. In the same way if he then begins to suspect that the vehicle that you are driving is not roadworthy even if it has a disc, he can then give you summons directing you to take vehicles to a particular testing station at a particular time. So that is still in the law and it does not warrant any amendment of the legislation.”
