Johannesburg - The agency that manages the country’s roads will be closed down after it failed to “fulfil its purpose” in the past 10 years. But the national Department of Transport says the decision to close the financially and administratively ailing Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) can only be taken by the cabinet.
The Sunday Independent, however, understands that the decision was taken at a shareholders’ committee meeting last month. The committee is made up of the nine transport MECs and Transport Minister Ben Martins.
The Sunday Independent has seen the document, “Strengthening the Management of Road Traffic: A review discussion on issues around the RTMC”, which was tabled at the shareholders’ meeting.
The document was developed to help the committee members decide on the future of the corporation.
According to the document, the RTMC never “fulfilled its purpose”.
“It remains to be said that up to 2010, the RTMC was institutionally weak and could hardly have fulfilled its purpose,” says the document.
Free State transport MEC Butana Komphela confirmed that a unanimous decision to fold the corporation was taken at the meeting. The committee had given Martins six months to do so, said Komphela, adding that the decision was “purely based on the effectiveness of the corporation”.
“The RTMC has not been functioning very well. There are quite a number of challenges that it has been facing and on the basis of that, we decided that its responsibilities must go back to the national Department of Transport. The provincial competencies must go back to the provinces,” said Komphela.
Western Cape transport MEC Robin Carlisle said that although the meeting was presented with three options for the future of the corporation, the other two were not discussed and the decision to dissolve the corporation was taken.
Carlisle said the committee had been told that the corporation’s closure would take about two years, but MECs were not keen on that.
Carlisle said that since the meeting he had received two letters from Martins.
“The first said that the corporation would be closed by the end of 2013 and the second said only the cabinet could make the decision to close the RTMC,” said Carlisle.
His view was that the corporation had never functioned correctly and that the shareholders’ committee, which gave the functions to the corporation, could take it back.
RTMC spokesman Ashref Ismail referred media queries to the national Transport Department.
Transport spokesman Tiyani Rikhotso said the department was aware of the problems facing the corporation.
Martins would have to present the decision to the cabinet. Rikhotso could not say when this would happen.
But a source within the corporation, who did not wish to be named, said there was a lot of concern among employees.
“No one knows what is happening and management is not talking to us. All we have heard, via the rumour mill, is that the corporation will be closed.”
Last month a circular told the corporation to “remain calm and continue to focus on work” until a decision was made about the future of the agency.
According to the document, the corporation had functional overlaps with a number of other entities and with the national Department of Transport, which had kept its road safety directorate that did its own road safety promotional work.
“It leads to duplication of effort and waste of resources,” the document stated.
Last year the RTMC was R38 million over its R86m annual budget.
The cash crisis was on the back of about R600m in unauthorised spending under the corporation’s previous management.