The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), which has placed unrelenting pressure on government to abandon plans to introduce the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (Aarto), has predicted that if it starts in July, as proposed by government, it will fail.
The rollout has not been properly planned, says Outa.
“Outa’s legal challenge to Aarto is due in court in October, and the agency charged with implementation has refused to provide any information on readiness,” says Andri Jennings, Outa’s attorney in this matter.
An official start for the legislation, which sets up a driver’s licence demerit system, has not yet been gazetted. This means if it is expected to start in July, as Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula has previously claimed, it will be a last-minute authorisation, says Outa.
“Last-minute is not the way to start such a complicated and bureaucratic process, particularly as this relies heavily on failed systems like municipalities.
“The demerit system was set up in the Aarto Act, but that section of the Act was never rolled out. The Aarto Amendment Act will implement the demerit system and was signed into law in August 2019, but although this was nearly two years ago, no start date has ever been gazetted.”
Outa has asked the ministers responsible for implementation to hold off on the rollout due to the lack of readiness by authorities and because the organisation’s legal case challenging its constitutionality is due in court in October.
In July last year, Outa filed a court application calling for the Aarto Act and the Aarto Amendment Act to be declared unconstitutional. The application was issued in the Pretoria High Court and is against the minister of transport, the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) and the RTIA's Appeals Tribunal. The RTIA is responsible for implementing Aarto.
The matter is due to be heard on October 18 and 19.
On June 15, Outa’s lawyers wrote to the legal team for the two ministers and the RTIA, asking them to refrain from implementing it until the high court has ruled on this legal challenge. “It is premature for the national rollout to commence prior to the constitutional implications of Aarto being resolved,” said Jennings in a letter to the State Attorney in Pretoria.
“We note that no effective date has been officially gazetted,” said Jennings. “We further submit that the respondents are not ready to proceed with the national rollout of Aarto, and should they persist, it may lead to the system’s collapse. We therefore advise caution so that the respondents do not incur wasteful expenditure of public moneys.”
No response has been received.
“While Outa believes that measures to improve road safety and reduce fatalities are urgently needed, we believe that the Aarto Amendment Act will not achieve this. Aarto was rolled out in Gauteng 10 years ago and failed spectacularly. Statistics do not support the claim that it will lead to a reduction in fatalities on roads.”
