The Department of Transport (DOT) says the country's new traffic law will not be implemented at the end of January, as incorrectly stated in recent media reports.
Reports claimed there was a new push to implement the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act as “all local municipalities, metro councils and provincial traffic authorities have been instructed to be ready for the implementation of Aarto by January 31”.
The same reports say the instruction appeared in an e-mail that an adviser to the Road Transport Management Corporation (RTMC), Gerrie Botha, sent to issuing authorities last week.
Acting CEO of the corporation Collins Letsoalo declined to comment on “internal correspondence”.
Aarto will see the allocation of demerit points to traffic law infringers. It is set to be introduced on a national basis from 1 April 2011. Pilot projects are currently being run in the municipalities of Tshwane and Johannesburg.
Not yet
“As the Department of Transport, we have repeatedly stated that the minister will announce a date for Aarto implementation to the public in due course,” says DOT spokesperson Logan Maistry.
“We only have one agenda with Aarto and that is to save lives. We're not going to announce implementation a day before.”
He says the e-mail referred to in the media reports was an internal e-mail, and 31 January was probably a deadline for the system to be ready, but not for actual implementation.
Saving lives
With the Aarto system, drivers lose points when they commit traffic offences and this will be reflected on the National Contravention Register on eNatis.
All drivers have 12 points to start with, and lose a certain amount of them depending on the severity of the offence. This could eventually lead to the suspension of one's licence. However, points can also be earned through good behaviour.
The DOT postponed the implementation of the Act due to problems encountered with the pilot systems.
In response to a Parliamentary question, Ndebele said the allocation of demerit points to infringers will be introduced on a national basis from 1 April 2011.
Aarto manager, the Road Traffic Management Corporation, previously said it would spend over R300 million on IT and marketing for the new demerit system for motorists.
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