The two pilot cities
for the controversial
Administrative
Adjudication of Road
Traffic Offences (Aarto)
Act have found this to
be an extremely costly
project, and frustratingly
poor at improving their
enforcement procedures.
So much so that
Tshwane (Pretoria)
and Johannesburg
municipalities no longer
want to be the test cases.
And, with Cape Town
and the Western Cape
governments also being
completely anti, this makes
the proposed national rollout
of Aarto a bit of a shaky
proposition.
Indeed, from what
Cape Town city’s mayoral
committee (mayco) member
for safety and security,
alderman JP Smith, told
Radio 702, it would be
utterly ineffective.
Smith described the
Aarto legislation and its
systems as “dysfunctional”,
while accusing the act of
having proved to be useless.
It was created for the
purposes of the driver
point demerit system, he
added, but that was the
part which was “currently
not functional”. And Smith
pointed out: “If the demerits
aren’t taking place, then the
rest of the act is pointless.”
And Smith was joined
in his critical stance
by Michael Sun, mayco
member for public safety in
Johannesburg, and Derrick
Kissoonduth, mayco
member for safety and
security in Tshwane.
Both these parties
have just pleaded with
parliament’s transport
portfolio committee for
their metros to be exempted
from executing Aarto
because of teething problems
in its implementation.
Indeed, Sun told Business
Day that Johannesburg had
expected the pilot project to
help the metro run its traffic
systems better. But, he
complained, although Aarto
“was supposed to make
things easier for motorists
and cities” the system had
proved disastrous and
resulted in even worse
compliance than before.
Figures from the
Johannesburg metropolitan
police department prove the
point.
Before the Aarto system
was piloted in 2008, the
city had issued 655 719
fines, which had a 10.25%
payment rate and generated
R15 million in income. The
number of fines has since
then increased to 1¢712 931,
but the payment rate has
now decreased to 4.71%.
Pilot cities bail on Aarto
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