(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, it is not lawful for a person to use, or to cause or permit any other person to use, a motor vehicle on a public road unless there is in force in relation to the use of the vehicle by that person or that other person, as the case may be, such a policy of insurance in respect of third-party risks as complies with the requirements of this Act.
(2) If a person acts in contravention of this section he or she commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or to both such fine and imprisonment, and a person convicted of an offence under this section shall (unless the court for special reasons thinks fit to order otherwise and without prejudice to the power of the court to order a longer period of disqualification) be disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving permit under the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act for a period of 12 months from the date of the conviction.
(3) A person disqualified by virtue of a conviction under this section or of an order made thereunder from holding or obtaining a driving permit shall, for the purposes of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act be deemed to be disqualified under that Act.
(4) A person charged with using a motor vehicle in contravention of this section shall not be convicted if he or she proves that the vehicle did not belong to him or her and was not in his or her possession under a contract of hiring or loan, that he or she was using the vehicle in the course of his or her employment and that he or she neither knew nor had reason to believe that there was not in force in relation to the vehicle such a policy of insurance as is mentioned in subsection (1).
(5) Despite any enactment prescribing a time within which proceedings may be brought before a court of summary jurisdiction, proceedings for an offence under this section may be brought—
(a) within a period of 6 months from the date of the commission of the alleged offence; or
(b) within a period which exceeds neither 3 months from the date on which it came to the knowledge of the prosecutor that the offence had been committed nor one year from the date of the commission of the offence, whichever period is the longer.
(Amended by Act 15 of 1998)