MEC will do "everything within legal means" to start naming and shaming drunk drivers.
|||TRANSPORT MEC Robin Carlisle has vowed to do “everything within legal means” to start naming and shaming drunk drivers again, and Justice Minister Jeff Radebe is under mounting pressure to publicly support and reinstate the campaign.
On Wednesday, provincial transport MEC Robin Carlisle urged Radebe to take urgent steps to make it possible to continue publishing the names of convicted drunk drivers in the Cape.
Carlisle has been backed up by LeadSA, a partnership between the Cape Argus and Primedia Broadcasting, and a number of road safety campaigners, including South Africans Against Drunk Drivers and the Automobile Association.
Publication in the Cape Argus began in August 2010 and continued until October last year.
The tranches of names comprised most recently convicted drivers sentenced in Western Cape criminal courts, naming drivers whose names had been handed over to the provincial transport department for capture on the eNatis database.
But late last year, the flow of names to the transport department dried up.
Carlisle has written an urgent letter to Radebe, stating: “In November 2012, the courts in the Western Cape stopped sending in these records.
“After a series of meeting with representatives of your department in the Western Cape, including regional head Mr Hishaam Mohamed, it has been established that this occurred as a result of an administrative change to Department of Justice processes, the purpose of which remains unclear, but which is claimed to be more legally compliant.”
Western Cape head of the Justice Department, Hishaam Mohammed, said in response yesterday that court records of convicted criminals, including drunk drivers, were open to the public, but it had become too onerous on officials to keep up a steady supply of drunk drivers’ details to Carlisle’s tansport department.
Instead, Justice Department officials only recorded the names of anyone whose licence was endorsed – but this did not cite their offence, which could, for example, have been speeding-related.
Last night, Carlisle stuck to his call on Radebe to make administrative changes to ensure the campaign could resume.
Hector Elliott, head of the transport ministry at the time, who used the images for Safely Home’s “crash witness programme”, said of yesterday’s judgment: “I have followed (the Nkalitshana) case closely. We will never reduce the carnage on our roads unless our courts start jailing killer drunk drivers.”
Elliott, who introduced the name and shame campaign from Carlisle’s office, said: “The sentence, coming on top of the shut-down of the name and shame, can only take us backwards.”
The severity of the smash is still recorded on the Safely Home website, at safelyhome.western cape.gov.za – under the “galleries” section. -Cape Argus