Why you can’t park facing the wrong direction in South Africa (but you can in the UK)
After two decades in Britain, I’ve grown accustomed to the convenience of parking whichever way suits me. But back home in South Africa, despite roads riddled with potholes and taxis that play by their own rules, there’s one law that remains sacred: never park facing the wrong direction.
Having lived in the UK for over 20 years now, the convenience of parking in either direction has become second nature.
Need to pop into a shop across the road? Just swing in, facing whichever way is easiest. Nobody bats an eyelid. It’s practical, it’s efficient, and frankly, it’s liberating.
Yet here’s the fascinating paradox: back home in South Africa, despite potholed roads that could swallow a small car, taxis cutting you up on commuter routes with alarming regularity, plenty of uninsured drivers,
and vehicles that look like they’d struggle to pass any roadworthy test, the parking rule has stuck. Rigidly. Culturally. Absolutely.
The South African law: No wrong-way parking
In South Africa, parking facing oncoming traffic is illegal under the National Road Traffic Act. Regulation 304(e) states that no person shall stop a vehicle “on the right hand side of such roadway facing oncoming traffic.”
Day or night, urban street or quiet suburban road, if your vehicle is facing oncoming traffic, you’re breaking the law. You can be fined, and your vehicle can even be towed at your expense.
But in the UK, nobody seems to care
Cross over to Britain, and Rule 248 of the Highway Code technically states you mustn’t park facing against traffic at night.
Yet virtually nobody seems aware this rule exists, and traffic wardens turn a blind eye entirely. Even at night, you’ll see cars parked facing the wrong direction across residential streets, with no tickets being issued.
The stark contrast
The difference is remarkable.
In South Africa, where you might navigate around a crater-sized pothole, dodge a taxi performing an unexpected U-turn, and squeeze past a smoking bakkie that’s held together with wire and hope, wrong-way parking remains the line you absolutely do not cross.
Perhaps that’s the beauty of it.
Amidst all the chaos of South African roads, this one rule stands firm, universally respected, and rigorously enforced. It’s oddly reassuring, really.