Traffic fines article malicious
by
2012-01-29 10:00
Sibusiso Ndebele, MP
Minister of Transport
The article entitled “Ndebele, Letsoalo threaten drivers while they rack up fines”, which appeared in the City Press on Sunday (January 8 2012), refers.
The article, which can best be described as preposterous and malicious, seeks to scratch the bottom of the barrel in an attempt to discredit the transport minister and undermine his office and mandate to provide safe and reliable transport services to the people of South Africa.
Despite the fact that my office provided the relevant clarity on this matter, City Press went ahead and published the article which contains false information.
The car in question that is said to have collected speeding fines for driving over the limit was previously owned by me. It was sold to a motor vehicle dealership in June 2010, as acknowledged by City Press itself in the article in question.
Accordingly, since June 2010, I have not been the legal owner of the vehicle which City Press, only now in 2012, alleges “has run up a raft of traffic fines”.
Furthermore, the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA), the custodian of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO), and independent adjudicator of all traffic infringements has subsequently investigated this matter and confirmed that there are no outstanding traffic fines in my name.
The RTIA protects the integrity of the process as well as personal records contained in the National Contraventions Register.?
It has also confirmed that this information was not acquired in a proper manner, thus its usage was intended to negatively portray my image and that of the acting CEO of the RTMC.
Therefore, media reports on this matter are false, malicious, misleading, sensational and are intended to cast aspersions on my integrity as well as insinuate that I am not fit and proper to hold office as transport ministerMinister of Transport.
Such reports rubbish and trivialise a very serious government campaign to ensure safer roads when more than a thousand lives were lost this past December alone, diverting public attention from the real issue: unlawful driving and road carnage.
I challenge City Press to retract its article and clarify this matter in all its aspects for its readers.