INLSA

A police officer demonstrates the Drager breathalyser.

MURRAY WILLIAMS

Staff Writer

EIGHT Cape motorists have been convicted of drunken driving while not even holding drivers’ licences.

This has emerged from the latest list of names of Western Cape drivers who have been sentenced for alcohol-related crimes in Western Cape courts and whose names have been handed to the provincial Transport Department for capture on the electronic eNatis database.

Transport MEC Robin Carlisle said:

“I don’t believe it’s likely that one can mitigate that degree of irresponsibility. Under those circumstances, those people should be prohibited from driving for the rest of their lives. We’ll be discussing this with the NPA.”

He believed the campaign to reduce drunken driving had already been successful.

“I don’t think there can be any question that the most successful part of (the) ‘safely home’ (project) is the changed attitude around drinking and driving.

“I get this from all quarters – people telling me how they’ve changed their behaviour,” he reported.

Among the sentences handed down by magistrate’s courts in connection with the latest recorded convictions was that of Theron Krawe of Moorreesburg, who was sentenced to correctional supervision. He had to undertake 20 hours of community service a month at Malmesbury Ambulance Station for 18 months and had to report to his police station regularly during this period.

He was ordered to avoid “strong liquor” and not move house or change jobs during this period.

The news came on the back of the arrest of two traffic officers’ yesterday in connection with fraud at a licence testing station in Worcester.

“It’s now clear to me that the selling of both learners’ and drivers’ licences is very widespread,” Carlisle told the Cape Argus.

“We’re putting all our resources on to it. We have concluded successful investigations at three centres – at Velddrif, Vredenberg and now Worcester – and we have sting operations at another three coming.

“These are mainly at rural municipalities. We’re not encountering these types of problems in the city.”

The names were furnished to the Western Cape Transport Department by magistrate’s courts across the province, in connection with two crimes:

l Driving “over the limit”: this means the driver was tested and found to be over the legal limit for blood alcohol, breath alcohol or both. The 153 were all blood-tested. The legal limit is 0.24mg per 1 000ml |of blood.

l Driving “under the influence”: this means the driver was convicted based on records showing him or her to be driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs – for example, eyewitness testimony or photographic evidence. Not all magistrate’s courts file their records simultaneously, and convicted drivers’ names are recorded on the eNatis system as they arrive at the Transport Department.