Estate Living Magazine Estate Living Issue 28 April | Page 28

The use
of golf
carts in
estates
or designated golf cart paths; however, there are also many
estates without designated golf cart paths and, as anyone
living or working in an estate, and particularly the homeowners’
associations charged with administering the conduct of
persons within estates, knows all too well, the rules in terms
The popularity of golf carts has risen dramatically in recent
times, with golf carts now being used beyond golf courses and
of which conduct is regulated are themselves often a source of
conflict and at times much confusion.
having become a popular mode of transport at sporting events Is the use of golf carts on internal estate roads permissable,
and in and around hospitals, businesses, airports and resorts, and to what extent may a homeowners’ association regulate
to name but a few alternative uses. The use of golf carts as a golf cart usage within an estate? These questions are not
convenient means of travelling within secure residential estates simple to answer and much turns on the status of internal
and retirement communities has also grown, and the question estate roads and whether they are governed by the provisions
regularly posed is how to effectively control and manage the of the National Road Traffic Act, 93 of 1996 (‘the NRTA’), which
use thereof, particularly by teenagers and adolescents who regulates the type of vehicles that may be driven and general
cannot yet drive motor vehicles and regard golf carts as a conduct on roads that are deemed to be ‘public roads’ in terms
convenient alternative means of getting around. of the Act.
More often than not the rules of an estate will regulate to some Issues surrounding the status of internal estate roads and the
extent whether golf cart usage is restricted to golf course areas applicability of the NRTA rules were recently dealt with by the
full bench of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court at Pietermaritzburg
in the matter of Nimesh Singh and Another v Mount Edgecombe
Country Club Estate Management Association Two (RF)
(NPC) and Others, Case Number AR575/2016 (the ‘Singh v
Mount Edgecombe matter’) in a decision handed down on 17
November 2017.
Interms of the NRTA, it is only the Minister of Transport (the
‘Minister’) who may prescribe signs, signals and markings
and otherwise control traffic on public roads, including the
authorisation of speed limits and the categories of motor
vehicles that may be driven on public roads. In terms of
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Pezula Golf Estate