The implementation of the Aarto system will be delayed by at least eight months after assessments done by the Department of Transport.
Motorists have been gearing up for the new traffic law monitoring regime, but the government have again hit the brakes on its rollout.
Just three weeks until it was set to be implemented, the Department of Transport (DoT) announced on Monday that the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) system would need to be delayed.
The system was meant to begin from 1 December at 69 municipalities across the country, but the DoT deemed too many of those to be insufficiently prepared.
New Aarto date
Assessments done by Minister Barbara Creecy and Deputy Minister Mkhuleko Hlengwa deemed that the system was not ready for implementation.
“The postponement comes amid an assessment by the department of the state of readiness in some of the municipalities that were to form part of the first implementation phase,” the DoT stated.
Readiness concerns at undisclosed municipalities include the completion of training of officers and administrative staff, as well as the funding of the transition away from the current system.
The introduction of Aarto will now be pushed back by at least seven months, with phase one of the system said to be ready by 1 July 2026.
The department plans to push ahead with the phased implementation approach, and dates on the additional phases will be announced when available.
‘Inevitable’ delay
Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) CEO Wayne Duvenage said the latest delay — the third in five years — should be used to deal with the flaws in the framework.
“This delay was inevitable. Aarto was never ready, not in 2020, not in 2024, and certainly not now.
“If government is serious about road safety, it must return to the drawing board and build a transparent, practical system that supports enforcement, earns public trust, and genuinely saves lives,” Duvenage said.
He argued that the regulations, due to take effect on 1 December, were rushed through and constituted a “complete re-write” of the version used for the public participation process in 2020.
Accumulated demerit points were a hallmark of the system — although they were only implemented in later phases — but Duvenage said the regulations governing them were vague.
“We support any system that improves road safety and encourages motorists to obey the law, but regulation must be clear, fair and functional. Aarto fails that test,” he concluded.
