EDITORIAL: Scrap fuel levies for compliant taxis
Soaring costs and dangerous roads require a strategic approach
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and, more importantly, South Africans who have fallen victim to the hopelessly policed lawlessness, disrepair and outdated design of our roads, it seems a legislative act of self-immolation to avoid paying a bill.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...
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