Die Redakteur

Moot Rekord

Dear Editor

In response to residents living near Kilner Park (and other communities too) regarding the presence of learner drivers and their driving instructors:

• We admit learner drivers drive very slowly and can cause delays when you are trapped behind them.
• We admit that they can stall in front of you, which can be very irritating!
• We admit that they stall again if you hoot.
• We admit that they sometimes indicate left when they mean right. 

We apologize on behalf of all driving instructors and their learners around the country!

May we please take this opportunity to explain our side of the problem though?

• We have no official designated place to train learner drivers anywhere in the country.
• If we go to the quietest corner of a shopping centre to train learners we are chased away like dogs by a number of security guards.
• When we ask why, considering we are not using parking bays that customers need and we are sitting in the vehicles with our students using dual control pedals at our feet, ready to prevent a loss of control which might damage their property or hurt someone, in expensively insured vehicles - we are told that a fly-by-night instructor allowed a learner driver to kill a member of the community when the so-called” instructor” was not in the car.
• We have no viable alternative to training the learners on public roads.
• If this inconveniences you as the public, we sympathize and understand your point of view, but WHERE did YOU learn to drive?
• Where would you like us to train your child?
• Did you have a separate place you could learn so as not to be in the way?
• If you learnt on farms, then with all due respect, we bet you need a refresher course.
• Our learners have to reach a very high standard of competency in order to pass the K53 test.
• Training involves defensive driving and incorporates some advanced driving techniques.
• We know that South Africa has NEVER provided anywhere for learner drivers to be trained.
• In fact the Government has NEVER even trained one driving instructor!

SAIDI has just returned from the First International Road Traffic Safety Conference.

• We have made proposals to a packed conference hall with all the top authorities in the country, asking for a training centre for driving instructors (and others) to be built as well as practice grounds in every town and city in the country.
• Until that happens, we will not have any other way to prepare new drivers for earning their licences.
• In defense of the poor nervous learners, please know that it is law to maintain a safe following distance of a minimum of 2 seconds in dry weather and 4 to 5 seconds in wet conditions.
• Please be patient! After all, should we not be grateful that they are attempting to obtain legal drivers’ licences, instead of buying them?
• As dedicated Driving Instructors we are under a great deal of pressure.
• Many South Africans complain that we have practically the highest road death statistics in the world, but they have the wrong mentality towards training their children to drive.
• Parents are often willing to spend a small fortune on a matric dance dress, for example, yet want us to get their children through the K53 licence in a couple of lessons, to “learn the tricks”!
• It is very difficult to obtain appointments, due to the imbalance between learners’ licence appointments and drivers’ licence appointments.
• We are always being harassed by the public. Some overtake over pavements and mini-circles. Most people overtake illegally over solid white painted lines.
• Please spare a thought for those of us who risk our lives and vehicles every day training your children in very dangerous traffic.
• The Government is only now beginning to regulate our industry for the first time in the history of South Africa.
• We are shocked by this because SAIDI was started by the Government 33 years ago to be an “umbrella body” for instructors.
• Our members have a specific code of conduct and wish to inform the public that it is NOT compulsory for all instructors to belong to an association with the same level of professional conduct.
• Please refer to our website to find members who have signed that they are willing to abide by the terms of our Code of Conduct, our Constitution (on the website) and by Regulations 28 28A, B and C.