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Wasteful Aarto is doomed

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 16 Jan 2015
Despite calls for a demerit system more than 50 years ago, the tech-enabled Aarto project has yet to get going.
Despite calls for a demerit system more than 50 years ago, the tech-enabled Aarto project has yet to get going.

Government is heading to Parliament in the next few months to take the controversial demerit traffic law a step closer to becoming reality, almost 17 years after it was initially mooted. Yet, argue commentators, it is doomed to never get off the ground and has become a waste of taxpayers' money.

A technology-driven demerit system is a much-needed tool in the fight against road deaths - with festive season carnage costing 1 368 lives, according to government. The current law has missed several deadlines, including a target of going live in the second half of last year.

The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (Aarto) was approved by Parliament in 1998 and was set to roll out nationally on 1 April 2008. This was much to the delight of at least one JSE-listed company, which had been banking on the law to improve its fortunes.

The endless delays have had the adverse effect on Total Client Services, which applied for business rescue in December 2013 as profit and revenue continued to drop. The company recently told shareholders its business rescue plan has yet to pay off, but it is hopeful of improved fortunes on the back of new products and contracts.

Getting there

Aarto's enforcement agency - the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) - is confident the system will get off the ground soon. COO Thabo Tsholetsane explains the current delay is due to several issues: the Aarto Act has yet to be amended, it has to resolve shortcomings it found during the pilot project, and final readiness assessments are under way to make sure all role-players are good to go.

Once those processes are complete, a recommendation will be made to the minister of transport, who will then pronounce a go-live date, says Tsholetsane. He adds the amendments are set to be tabled in Parliament in this first quarter of this year, after being held up by last May's elections.

However, the agency's statements - made yesterday - mirror those it made almost a year ago, when it said the system was on track for launch in the second half of 2014.

Cannot be done

Despite the RTIA's endeavours to move Aarto ahead, commentators argue the system is doomed to never go live.

Howard Dembovsky, chairman of the Justice Project of SA, says the system cannot be implemented as it stands as this will create a huge mess. He notes the RTIA does not have enough money to get it off the ground, and the Aarto Act and its regulations (and attempts to fix them through the amendment process) are also a mess, and are holding up implementation.

Dembovsky adds ineptitude from various parties is preventing the much-needed law from coming into effect. He points out there is no way, without the system, that motorists can check if they have fines across the country because there are 287 municipalities and nine provincial traffic authorities, none of which talk to each other, with the exception of Johannesburg and Tshwane.

Democratic Alliance shadow minister of transport, Manny de Freitas, says government should scrap the project, and look to other countries instead of reinventing the wheel. He also does not believe Aarto will ever see the light of day, as there is no one clear entity that has taken control.

De Freitas says Aarto has become another failed IT project that has cost taxpayers billions overall. Dembovsky adds the system has been a "massive" waste of an enormous amount of taxpayers' money.

Tsholetsane was unable to quantify the total cost, noting Aarto was part of a broader revamp of traffic infringement systems that includes the Electronic National Traffic Information System (eNatis).

Dembovsky notes SA - with its high death toll rate on roads - urgently needs a demerit system to ensure the law is enforced. He notes the Automobile Association called for such a system in 1963. "I'm pulling my hair out about it."

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