What does the definition on public roads say?
The National Road Traffic Act, 1996 (NRTA) regulates what is considered a public road for operational purposes.
“public road” means any road, street or thoroughfare or any other place (whether a thoroughfare or not) which is commonly used by the public or any section thereof or to which the public or any section thereof has a right of access, and includes—
(a) the verge of any such road, street or thoroughfare;
(b) any bridge, ferry or drift traversed by any such road, street or thoroughfare; and
(c) any other work or object forming part of or connected with or belonging to such road, street or thoroughfare;”
“operate on a public road” or any like expression, in relation to a vehicle, means to use or drive a vehicle or to permit a vehicle to be used or driven on a public road, or to have or to permit a vehicle to be on a public road;”
The definition of a public road is not linked to the “ownership” or maintenance of a road, parking area, etc. but to the common use or right of use by the public of a road.
A person, who wants to argue that a road is private, to avoid prosecution or prohibit a traffic officer from enforcing the law on such road, would therefore have to prove that a road has access control or members of the public do not use such road. This is generally difficult to prove. In terms of decided cases, very few roads are considered private.
In a specific case, even the fact that a mine displayed a sign stating that a road is private and prohibiting the public from using it was not sufficient to regard the road as private, due to the fact that the mine did nothing to ensure the road was not used by the public.
So, if the public does not generally use the road over my farm and there is access control in the form of a locked gate, as per the definition, is it still a public road?