The amended Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Bill would make South Africa’s roads safer and would be implemented despite ongoing criticism and complaints, said Thabo Tsholetsane of the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA).
Several organisations – including the Justice Project SA (JPSA) and the Automobile Association (AA) – have repeatedly called on government to throw out the controversial legislation and go back to the drawing board. Addressing the annual Road Freight Association conference recently, Tsolane said government had been at the proverbial drawing board for years and their efforts had culminated in Aarto which had successfully been piloted in the metros of Tshwane and Johannesburg.
“This process started way back in 2008 and the very purpose was to find out what the requirements were to be able to deal with this monster called Aarto,” he said. “We faced a lot of challenges – from the system itself to the processes and procedures. This resulted in a document of more than 3000 pages highlighting all the flaws in the system.”
He said the three biggest challenges identified in the pilot of Aarto were the system, operational efficiency and legislative challenges. “We went back to Parliament to address the latter and the Bill was amended. We then updated our systems and worked on our operational challenges,” he said. “The bill that we now have on the table will address road safety in South Africa and will be implemented successfully across the country.”
The Amended Aarto Bill is currently before Parliament in the final stages. Once signed and promulgated by the president it will become law and be implemented across the country. Tsholetsane said no definite time line was as yet available for the completion of the process but he said government was committed to rolling out Aarto once the bill had been enacted. This will include launching a points demerit system. Concerns over Aarto continue, even after the amendment of the legislation, with many organisations saying it is deeply flawed and will not deliver on the government’s road safety objective.
JPSA also maintains it is unconstitutional. Tsholetsane strongly disagreed with this contention. “We have heard people say it is unconstitutional. I say people like to use unconstitutionality and they like to use the Constitution selectively.” He said Aarto in its amended form would bring about change in driver behaviour as road users infringing the law would be punished. “It will no longer be a criminal process, but an administrative one.
Not only are drivers going to be fined, but they face the very real risk of losing their right to use the road through the points demerit system.” According to the RFA fleet owners will be exposed to considerable risk that could severely impact their businesses.
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Once signed and promulgated by the president, the amended Aarto bill will become law and be implemented across the country. – Thabo Tsholetsane
