The Road Traffic Infringement Authority RTIA says drivers who obey the rules of the road should not be threatened by the driving licence demerit point system, which comes into effect nationally from September next year.
The system involves drivers getting penalty points for different road infringements like speeding and if they accumulate more than fifteen demerit points, they run the risk of having their driver's licence suspended or cancelled.
With at least 40 people killed on the countrys roads daily, RTIA spokesperson Monde Mkhaliphi says the objective is not only to reduce the road carnage but also to try to curb reckless and negligent driving.
The threshold is 15 demerit points. That is where the cut-off line is. Once you get 15 demerit points, you have an option to behave well on the roads, and one demerit point falls away. But if you exceed the fifteenth demerit point and you are at 16, that is where the licence is going to be suspended. Let's say you are at 16 and you drive well for a period of three months, then another point will fall away and you land at fifteen and you are out of suspension."
