Aarto Act – will it or won’t it?

After 17 years in the making,
and eight years later than
its initial launch date, the
controversial Administrative
Adjudication of Road
Traffic Offences (Aarto)
Act is finally due to be
implemented from April 1.
According to a number
of press reports, it will kick
off in Johannesburg along
with the city of Pretoria
(Tshwane), where it has been
running on a pilot basis
since 2009.
It is then set to be rolled
out around the country
during the following months,
and then to be nationally
implemented on November 1.
But, after about a
decade of ever-changing
implementation dates, the
question amongst road
transporters is currently:
Will it, or won’t it?
And indeed it is still
not clear from transport
authorities whether the April
1 date will apply only to
Johannesburg/Pretoria, or to
the whole country.
Both the deputy
minister of transport,
Sindisiwe Chikunga,
and Thabo Tsholetane,
the chief operations officer
(COO) of the Aartoadministering
body and the
Road Traffic Infringement
Agency (RTIA), have implied
it will go live nationally.
Chikunga was quoted in
the press last August saying
“the law would be effective
nationwide from April 1”,
while Tsholetane was
reported late in January
to have used the phrase
“implemented throughout
the country by April 1”.
To clarify this, and other
issues surrounding Aarto,
FTW made
repeated
efforts to
contact
Tsholetane.
However, the
only number
available for
the RTIA just
continually
rang out, with
no reply.
But, when
we approached
two
knowledgeable
sources in the road transport
industry, we were met with
cynical attitudes from both.
Gavin Kelly, technical and
operations manager of the
Road Freight Association
(RFA), was extremely
tongue- in-cheek. He said:
“Well she (transport minister
Dipuo Peters) did say April
1. But she did not say which
year.”
FTW then asked Kevin
Martin, MD of Freightliner
Transport and for many
years the head of the Durban
Harbour
Carriers'
Association
(DHCA),
whether he
was also
one of the
doubters
about the
April 1 date.
He said: “I’d
have to plead
guilty to that.
It’s been on
and off so
many times
that everyone is bound to
be dubious about this latest
date.”
So we are still left with
that “will it or won’t it”
question. And a sizeable
number of commentators
are still convinced that the
system is doomed to fail.
INSERT & CAPTION
It’s been on and off
so many times that
everyone is bound to
be dubious about this
latest date.
– Kevin Martin