Left-hand drive vehicles OK - AA

2008-12-05 12:37

Johannesburg - Left-hand drive vehicles are not in danger of being banned, said the Automobile Association on Thursday.

It was responding to reports in the Sunday Times and the Sunday Independent in November, which said left-hand drive vehicles could not be registered under new regulations.

AA spokesperson Rob Handfield-Jones said he believed the misunderstanding stemmed from a misreading of amendments to current regulations.

"If you read the amendment in isolation then you might have thought left-hand vehicles were banned," he said.

The proposed amendments were published in the Government Gazette in November.

"We have consulted with Department of Transport legislators on this issue and the AA's opinion is that the amendment poses no threat to the ability of owners of LHD vehicles to use, sell or license their vehicles," said Handfield-Jones in a statement.

Re-registration?

But Department of Transport spokesperson Collen Msibi qualified this. He said that while the original owners could continue to legally drive their left-hand drive cars, once the cars changed hands they could not be re-registered.

Msibi said that at the moment, the cars could not be bequeathed but "there needs to be some sort of provision for people inheriting these cars."

Msibi called new regulations a "precautionary measure".

Among others, the new amendments changed the cut-off date for first registration from January 1, 2000 to July 23, 2004.

- SAPA