Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula yesterday announced that the July 1 implementation of Aarto (Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act) had now been pushed forward to July 2022, as the authorities must still set up the infrastructure to run it.
“We have repeatedly pointed out the problems with this system, which is administratively complicated and relies on chaotic municipal systems,” the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has said. “Earlier this week, Outa pointed out that the Aarto Amendment Act still did not have a start date so could not be implemented, and even if such a date was gazetted at the last minute, the system would fail as the authorities were clearly not ready.
“It now seems likely that Outa’s legal challenge to the constitutionality of Aarto will be heard before the amended Aarto act comes into effect. Our challenge, filed in July 2020 in the Pretoria High Court, is set down for hearing on October 18, 2021,” says Advocate Stefanie Fick, head of the organisation’s accountability division.
“What seems extraordinary is that the transport authorities themselves were apparently not aware of how unprepared they are,” says Outa. In Mbalula’s budget speech on May 25, he said: “We are on track with our target to proclaim July 1, 2021 as the effective date for the nationwide rollout of Aarto.”
“Even more extraordinary was the failure by Mbalula and his department to explain to the public – and all those municipalities which are supposed to be implementing Aarto – that the demerit system was never going to start on July 1. Instead, we had to wait until the much-promised “start date” to hear instead about the administrative “rollout” plans for the next year. Did he and his team only find out about this a few days ago?
“This lack of planning seems particularly egregious given that in Budget 2021 the Department of Transport gives the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) R224 million this year for the “Aarto Rollout Programme” (a big increase from last year’s R88 million). Didn’t the RTIA have to provide a plan to get this funding? Did the department not read it?”
There was also an inability to assess their own performance, Outa points out. “The minister referred to the Aarto pilot projects in Johannesburg and Tshwane as “successfully operational… although with some teething problems that were dealt with”. This is astonishing; has anyone noticed a reduction in traffic accidents and deaths in those areas in the last decade?
“Outa is definitely in favour of holding to account any motorist who disobeys traffic laws, but Aarto is not the answer. Government is unable to administer the process effectively," says Fick.
