The Road Accident Fund Amendment Bill is an egregious and probably unconstitutional misadventure. It is designed, as much as one gleans from the drafting at least, to remove as many of the fund’s liabilities as possible. Given that those liabilities are its entire purpose and, more importantly, South Africans who have fallen victim to the hopelessly policed lawlessness, disrepair and outdated design of our roads, it seems a legislative act of self-immolation to avoid paying a bill. It even tries to remove in their entirety as a category, victims of road accidents who are pedestrians on highways. Pedestrians make up 35%-40% of all SA road fatalities. We should all see it for what it seems to be — an abandonment of the poor and an attack on medical aids — and refuse to accept it.
The bill is a topic for another day, however, because there is a confluence of vexatious issues that are both uniquely South African and potentially soluble via a more strategic approach.
Many readers of this newspaper will have muttered a profanity in the face of the creative interpretation of the road law as adopted by minibus taxi operators. It is common cause that beyond the mundanities of speed limits and barrier lines upon which civilised road use is based, many taxis and the businesses that run them are uncompliant in terms of roadworthiness, licensing and tax compliance, and are often not insured.
More cerebral road-users are able to live comfortably with the accompanying truth that taxis offer the most efficient and affordable transport services in SA. Indeed, they are the oil in SA’s gearbox, and without a car of your own, they usually offer the best way to get from A to B. This means that any costs that hamper the taxi industry are passed on to the working poor and other commuters who require the services of taxis, and certainly the surging price of diesel — now perilously close to R25/l — hits both commuters and taxi operators hard. These people are already reeling from inflationary pressures on weak growth in salaries and can ill afford it.
To chip away at this gnarly issue, a good start would be to lure the taxi operators into a more compliant way of operating, rather than perpetrating a structurally belligerent relationship with the rule of law and the state in general — as illustrated in Cape Town last month. Taxis that are roadworthy, licensed, driven lawfully, pay tax on their earnings and are insured would result in fewer claims at the RAF, would require reduced police resources and save the state a significant sum.
In return, taxi operators with a certificate of compliance (the administration of which would need to be outsourced to an independent auditor for the purposes of avoiding corruption) should be exempt from all taxes and levies on fuel, via rebate. This would reduce one of the industry’s principal costs by as much as R7/l. Finding a way to supply diesel at wholesale prices to compliant taxis would reduce it yet further, by another R2.20/l.
The benefits of reduced transport costs for people need no introduction. Re-evaluating how people get to work, and finding ways to make it cheaper and safer, can work for everyone.
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