Overhaul of SA’s minimum car safety standards draws AA approval

The Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) has welcomed government proposals to raise minimum safety standards for new passenger cars sold locally, after the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) published a draft Compulsory Specification for Motor Vehicles of Category M1 (VC 8022) for public comment.

The draft, first published in the Government Gazette on 10 July, opens a two-month public comment period that closes on 10 September.

Among the key proposed changes are updated and strengthened mandatory airbag requirements, stricter rules governing side-impact protection, and a tougher standard for electronic stability control (ESC).

The AA said the revised standards should be applied consistently across all derivatives and specification levels of new vehicles sold in South Africa, not just top-tier models.

The association's CEO, Bobby Ramagwede, said current local safety requirements lag well behind those in other markets.

“The issue that we're dealing with is that the safety standards in South Africa are far below the safety regulations of other territories,” he said.

“Basically in SA, you can get away with two airbags, and that's pretty much it that's required for safety. In European and Australian markets, you have to have at least six airbags, electronic stability control, and far stronger material used to protect the occupants of a vehicle.”

Ramagwede said the organisation had been pushing for the changes for a decade. “So, ushering in this new era of regulation is supported; in fact, we were lobbying for the past 10 years to get those regulations raised to the point that we are par or equal to our European counterparts,” he said.