Legal debacle continues over demerit road system
Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula has announced that the department would appeal the judgment of the Gauteng high court in Pretoria which ruled the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) act was unlawful. The department allocated R215-million for the implementation of Aarto during the 2021/22 financial year.
After 13 years of being part of the implementation of the new transport demerit system, Tshwane is caught in the middle of an ongoing legal debacle about the constitutionality of the system.
Since 2008, the Department of Transport implemented the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) (and amended) act – a new transport demerit system in Tshwane and Johannesburg metro.
Things took a turn last week Thursday, when the Gauteng high court in Pretoria judge, Annali Basson ruled the system was unconstitutional and invalid. The court cited that the national department and parliament intruded on the exclusive power of the provincial government and local government when it implemented the act.
The court gave the ministry 24 months to allow parliament to rectify the invalidity of the act. The case against the department was ensued by the civil rights organisation group, Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).
Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula, while speaking on the festive season road fatalities on Tuesday, announced that the department would appeal the ruling.
Mbalula believed that the act was the department’s “final piece of the puzzle” at curbing road fatalities.
“We have just concluded one of our most challenging festive campaigns which stretched our resources to the limit, putting a strain on our law enforcement operations. Over this past festive season we saw some of the most heart-wrenching crashes claiming many lives in a single crash.”
January 12, a head-on coalition on the N1 highway near Mookgophong (Naboomspruit) in Limpopo claimed 17 lives and injured eight. Reports indicated that the bus was travelling from Bosman taxi rank in Pretoria to Limpopo when the fatal accident occurred.
Mbalula said there were a total of 34 major crashes accounting for 233 fatalities. One of the ways at solving this issue was the implementation of Aarto, he said.
“Aarto provides an adjudication system for infringements of the rules of the road traffic. Aarto is the final piece of the puzzle implementation of a new road traffic management system.
“The importance of Aarto in driving behaviour change of motorists and providing disincentives for unbecoming conduct cannot be over-emphasised. It is for these reasons that we have decided to appeal the ruling of the Pretoria high court declaring the Aarto act unconstitutional and invalid,” Mbalula said.
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The department allocated R215-million for the implementation of Aarto during the 2021/22 financial year.
Mbalula said the department anticipated the Road Accident Fund claims would increase to R518,7-billion in 2023/24 financial year.
Following the initial judgment, Tshwane metro police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said the department was consulting with the metro’s legal team and the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) to determine the way forward. The metro police had been part of the Aarto implementation programme issuing Aarto infringements.
Whether Tshwane metro would continue using the Aarto system while the matter was in court remained unclear.
Rekord sent inquiries for clarity to the RTIA, which is the department responsible for Aarto, but did not receive response by the time of publication.
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