Motorists could lose their driver's licences when the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO) rolls out nationally, not because they're dangerous drivers, but because critical technological flaws leave the system vulnerable to errors, corruption and outdated data.
“I feel that the chances of people getting into trouble because of a faulty system is way more than people [who] will get into trouble because they drive like maniacs,” says Advocate Stephanie Fick, the Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuse's executive director of the accountability division.
The Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) disagrees, saying it has all the relevant systems and processes in place to ensure that technological flaws and human error don’t plague the system.
AARTO, without the demerit point aspect, has been in effect in Johannesburg and Tshwane as a pilot project since 2008. After several delays, AARTO will roll out to 69 municipalities in December, with the remaining 144 municipalities coming online by December 2026, at which time the points demerit system will come into play.
“AARTO has not been successful to the degree that the demerit reporting system was ever enacted. I think they realised that the system was faulty. Now they've made a few changes and now they're going to run it out nationwide… I don't know whether they will be able to handle the numbers,” Fick notes.
The legislation is seen as necessary because road crashes and fatalities on South Africa's roads are unacceptably high, requiring “a very effective legal instrument that will enforce compliance and improve road safety,” the RTIA has said.
However, Fick warns that AARTO will have the opposite effect to what the RTIA intended, with innocent people adversely affected while those who should be taken off the road can bypass the system.
Polluted database
Among the issues is the Electronic National Traffic Information System (eNatis), which includes registers of motor vehicles, motor trade numbers, temporary and special permits, as well as driving licences and professional driving permits.
The RTIA hasn't “found a way to clean up the [eNATIS] database to make sure that all the cars that are on the system are registered to the actual owner,” says Fick.
Issues with eNatis were flagged more than a decade ago. The now deceased Howard Dembovsky, then Justice Project SA chairman, said in 2013 that eNatis is “one of the most polluted databases in South Africa”.
The database still contains incorrect data on stolen cars, says Fick, and the vehicle registration problems mean fines are issued to the wrong people.
Fick cites her own experience of receiving a fine for not having a valid driver's licence – a fine that is physically handed to a driver – that turned out to have been issued to someone else with a very similar licence plate.
Cornelia van Niekerk, fines4u founder, says the company has seen instances of cloned number plates as well as mistakes being made when fines are captured.
However, Monde Mkalipi, RTIA spokesperson, says that RTIA is not aware of any incorrect information in the database, while noting that it is the motorist’s responsibility to ensure that information is up to date.
Human error and corruption
With 2 659 types of infringements listed on the AARTO website, the manual nature of the system creates opportunities for errors when fines are captured, says Fick. Even when motorists update their address on eNatis, there is no certainty these changes will be captured correctly, she says.
The system is also susceptible to corruption because the exact motorists that RTIA wants to keep off the road can simply pay someone to change the infringement to one that results in fewer points being deducted, she adds.
Yet, Mkalipi says control measures to prevent corruption are in place and continuously monitored for effectiveness, with systems updated as needed. Policies and standard procedures help maintain integrity, and all AARTO operations comply with relevant laws and regulations, he says.
Van Niekerk explains that motorists must check for outstanding fines against their licence plate number via a web portal and, if the number is incorrect, they need to contest this. If motorists ignore the fines, they risk losing points and can lose their licence. “It's your responsibility to check it,” she says.
To ensure the fine is legitimate, motorists need to register on the AARTO website to confirm such details and then defend themselves if the penalty has been correctly issues.
No verification system
In addition, there is no technology in place for law enforcement to verify information such as checking that an identity number matches the person against Home Affairs' National Population Register, says Fick.
This means that should someone's identity be cloned, a law-abiding person could be receiving demerits against their name that they never incurred, says Fick.
Fick says this lack of technological verification would never have allowed her incorrect fine to be issued if there was a system able to verify that she was the driver of that vehicle by cross-checking eNatis.
However, Mkalipi says traffic officers are able to verify correctness of the information being captured when issuing an infringement notice which is completed electronically at the roadside and served in person.
“Traffic officers also have access eNatis though their respective control rooms and should be able to confirm information presented by the infringer,” he says.
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