by Siyabonga Ntshingila ;

The government has responded swiftly to yesterday’s comments by Magistrate Dan Thulare regarding what has become a necessity for South Africans frustrated by red tape and bureaucratic inefficiency-driving sans a license.

Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele has reported the magistrate to the Magistrates Commission labelling his comments “disconcerting, misleading and totally unethical”. Ndebele added that judicial officers should not consider themselves above the law. Thulare had been reported yesterday as having voiced a concern that given the difficulties South Africans faced in securing driving tests due to administrative backlogs in licensing authorities,

it was becoming increasingly hard to convict for people for driving without a licence when they had attempted to be tested but were thwarted by systemic inefficiencies. “any conviction of a citizen for driving without a licence will therefore be unlawful if the State itself has failed to test that person” Thulare said.

Without expanding on any moves to speed up the process and ease the delays on the public, Ndebele merely re-affirmed that it was still illegal to drive minus a licence and the courts should not promote such.

Thulare said yesterday: “I am informed that in Gauteng it is impossible for an average citizen to secure a date and place for a driver’s licence test. The law, as I understand it, does not expect any person to do the impossible. In the light of the matter being referred to the Magistrate’s Commission, I will not comment on the statement attributed to the minister.”