The Minister of Transport and Communications, Honourable Frank Ramsden says the implementation of the road traffic flagging begins 1st March 2011.
Speaking during a press conference recently, the Minister said implementation of the flagging system was delayed by the formulation of flagging regulations and training staff on flagging procedures.
He said flagging is the placement of a mark (flag) put on the registration details of a vehicle to alert the Department of Transport and Safety that the owner of the vehicle in question has outstanding fines.
The Minister said flagging will be done after 21 days upon which an offence has been committed and if the offender has failed to pay the penalty, the Department of Transport and Safety would not process any transactions relating to a flagged vehicle until all outstanding fines have been paid.
He said a flag on an offending vehicle will be cancelled if the outstanding fine has been paid off, the case has been withdrawn against the offender and if an investigation shows the alleged offender is a foreigner or has left Botswana.
Flagging exercise will assist in minimizing traffic offences and help curd the high numbers of road crashes.