South Africa will be welcoming some new driving laws soon, including a 0% legal blood-alcohol limit.

This means that drivers will not be allowed to drink and drive at all, with Transport minister Fikile Mbalula saying the laws will be implemented from June of this year.

This restriction will work alongside the new Aarto Act, which will introduce South Africa’s long-awaited demerit system and could see drivers lose their licenses if they accumulate enough traffic fines.

Now, we just need our police officers to stay sober in order to enforce the law.

Over the years, we’ve reported on a surprising number of incidents where police officers, Metro officers and their counterparts were busted after a little too much tipple.

The latest incidents come to us from Durban and Johannesburg respectively.

First, here’s IOL with a video of a cop that was widely shared last week, who is allegedly not living his best sober life in Durban:

In the video the officer is seen standing and swaying at the scene of an accident, where a marked Isipingo SAPS Toyota Quantum had knocked into the rear of a red private vehicle.

The officer, who is visibly having trouble stringing together a sentence, then stands next to the man on the phone while the videographer says: “Oh, sergeant knock people over now?”

Check it out:

That’s not a good look.

Spokesperson Thembeka Mbele said a case of misconduct was opened for investigation against the officer, so we’ll see how that pans out.

In the meantime, let’s hop on over to TimesLIVE for an update on what SAPS has been up to in Johannesburg:

An off-duty metro policeman was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol when he rolled a metro car while transporting three people at the weekend.

MPD Chief David Tembe

JMPD spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the accident happened on Sunday. The officer works in the JMPD’s bylaw management department.

Here’s the footage in question, with the car veering off the road shortly after the 15-second mark:

The officer has been charged with reckless and negligent driving.

The JMPD is taking it very seriously, stating that this “behaviour will not be tolerated”.

They’d better get it together before those new driving laws come into full effect.

After that incident at Dr Richard Maponya’s memorial service, our SAPS officers might not survive further embarrassment.

[source:iol&timeslive]