Illegal Made Legal

The more changes that are made by the powers-that-be in South Africa - the more laws are introduced.

There is even a law governing car window tinting. The idea and the use of car window tinting has been around for a very long time, but the laws regulating it were only really instituted a few years ago. There are many types of tints and thicknesses of tints - some extremely dangerous for the driver and fellow drivers due to poor visibility and bad installation. The decision was made that although car window tinting could not be made illegal, it needed to be regulated.

The rules of thickness of window film vary from country to country but for the South African car owner the window film must be able to transmit 70% natural light when applied on a vehicle's windscreen. This is solely for visibility and safety reasons. If window tint is installed on the side windows and the back window, 35% of natural light is required to filter through.

There is no compromise when it comes to safety and visibility, the safety of the driver, passengers and other factors must be taken into consideration. Apart from the driving aspect of poor visibility from the inside, traffic officers that pull over vehicles on a daily and nightly basis for routine inspections and to check for traffic violations, need to have a clear view into a vehicle. Criminal attacks on law enforcement officers, from within a vehicle, is becoming the norm these days.

On the other side of the coin drivers and passengers are also at risk every day due to hijackings and smash and grab incidents around the cities and the country. Car window tinting is not only a protection against this but also protects the occupants of the vehicle from being lacerated by flying glass in the event of any of these incidents.

This is the reason that car window tinting has not been outlawed in South Africa, as it also provides protection from these acts of crime.