Traffic police for Aarto

A National Traffic Police Unit has been set up to assist with the implementation of the Administrative Adjudication of Roads Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act, among other things.

About 280 traffic officers have been appointed as part of the unit, to intervene in areas where local and provincial governments had failed, according to Aarto manager, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).

During a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee meeting last week, the RTMC and Department of Transport (DOT) presented a progress report on the corporation.

The presentation highlighted the key interventions and turnaround of the RTMC, which had been plagued by mismanagement, resulting in a ministerial task team being appointed to deal with governance and management issues.

RTMC acting CEO Collins Letsoalo said preparations are under way for the national Aarto summit, which was initially supposed to be held in June.

He added that there are constant checks being done on the state of readiness of issuing authorities, and the RTMC is focusing on the National Contraventions Register (NCR), which will be used for Aarto via the eNatis system. The NCR has been completed and is currently being tested.

Democratic Alliance (DA) transport shadow minister Stuart Farrow suggested there is something wrong if two pilot schemes had already been run, one in Johannesburg and the other in Pretoria, yet there remains a problem with the rollout of the Aarto Act.

He said the implementation agency was waiting to implement the Act, but could not even do that since it was seemingly unable to grasp the key elements. If the RTMC is really serious about road safety, the demerit system is the way to go, he added.

risk assessment requirements as per National Treasury recommendations.

The DOT and RTMC will develop a migration plan, and IT team members are being trained in India.

Letsoalo noted that the RTMC was, in terms of the Aarto Act, the “issuing authority”, but it could not issue infringement notices without having staff to do so, and that was a reason for setting up traffic police.

However, Farrow said it was not the job of RTMC to put policemen on the road.

He also said that in the past, the former minister of transport Dullah Omar had attempted to put a Highway National Patrol System in place and this quickly ran into practical problems, in light of the constitutional restrictions around boundaries of municipalities and provinces.

Farrow pointed out that the RTMC had to guard against duplication of services or law enforcement on national roads, or interference in the jurisdictional areas of others.

He said it would have been more important to meet the needs of the different metros and provinces in terms of their staff.

Letsoalo said even though the RTMC is still “in intensive care” it is expected to deliver. However, one of the key problems is that it lacks strategic focus as to what exactly it has to do.

This has to be established, so that the corporation can then understand what the expectations are, said the acting CEO.

In relation to the strategic focus, the view of the minister and the shareholders' committee was that the RTMC needed to focus on reducing road fatalities.

It must further ensure corporate excellence through monitoring and evaluation, project management, compliance, target setting and performance management. Corporate support must be provided through IT, finance, human resources, communication, legal and facilities management.

Letsoalo said about 14 000 people die every year on SA's roads and this put SA about 15 to 20 years behind the rest of the world in terms of road safety during benchmarking.

However, he said this information was sourced solely from police reports, and there is a huge need to improve data collection and crash reporting, and so discussions are under way with a view to signing a memorandum of understanding with Statistics SA.

The RTMC is also collaborating with the Indian government to train and equip RTMC staff on data collection and analysis.

This was challenged by DA shadow deputy minister Manny de Freitas, who said the staff could be trained in the country, through the private sector.

In terms of future strategies, Letsoalo said the main strategic focus is that the RTMC should remain a national resource.

He said all systems and controls at the RTMC are being implemented, and these include the pay roll system, integrated financial management system, supply chain management policy and procedures, human resource management policies and procedures, and the cost containment strategy.

With regards to the MTT recommendations, disciplinary charges against employees have been instituted. Five officials were dismissed, but some cases are still sub judice, due to referral to the CCMA.

An out-of-court settlement has been reached with two officials and the disciplinary case against CEO Ranthoko Rakgoale is still ongoing.

Farrow noted that the MTT had presented its report regarding the corruption to the committee one year ago, and he questioned why there was such a delay in taking action and what the legal fees and legal processes had cost the RTMC.

DOT director-general George Mahlalela agreed, saying the disciplinary processes, including that of the suspended CEO, needed to be accelerated and resolved.