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The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the Minister of Transport's decision to heed our call for the appointment of an independent task team to investigate allegations of gross financial mismanagement, tender irregularities and misappropriation of funds at the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).

Following the DA's disclosure of serious irregularities in the management of RTMC and our request to the Public Protector to investigate the CEO, Ranthoko Rakgoale and other senior management, the Minister seems to have finally realised the urgency of the matter.

It is clear that such an investigation has become even more critical after yesterday's Sunday Times revealed the decision by Rakgoale to shelve the corporation's projects due to ‘a cash-flow problem'.

The shelving of RTMC projects will severely harm the effective functioning of many of South Africa's traffic management systems and the DA will be issuing parliamentary questions to ascertain which specific projects will be placed on hold.

It must be noted that the RTMC has under its competencies:

The training of traffic personnel
The management of road traffic information on the National Traffic Information system (e-Natis)
Accident investigations and recording thereof
Infrastructure safety audits
Road traffic law enforcement
Vehicle registration and licensing
Vehicle and roadworthiness testing
Testing and licensing of drivers
The implementation of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) act and its corresponding de-merit system.

The near defunct status of the RTMC is just another example of how the ANC-led government is indeed unable to properly manage the parastatals reporting to it. Once again, public funds will probably be used to bail the RTMC out of its financial impasse. The ANC-led government has a duty to the public to go to the root of the problem and stop placing incompetent leadership at the helm of publicly-owned corporations.

The task team appointed to get to the root of the RTMC's problems must do so thoroughly and transparently with the objective of holding the guilty parties to account.