The Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) is deliberately sabotaging the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act by sending out infringement notices via normal post, says the Justice Project of SA (JPSA).
The delivery method of fines within the Aarto system has been a point of contention for some months as the Act demands notices be sent via registered mail, yet the JMPD send them out via ordinary post.
For this reason, JPSA national chairman Howard Dembovsky says he understands some of the opposition to the Act, and he also thinks the problem with the JMPD sending out fines via normal post has been a plan to sabotage Aarto.
“Municipalities do not want a centralised database of all the fines they send out. There are some municipalities in this country that get their entire budget from traffic fines.”
No justification
JMPD spokesperson Edna Mamonyane did not confirm if the JMPD continues to send notices via normal mail, but denies this was a plan to interfere with Aarto.
“How can we enforce Aarto and sabotage it at the same time? How are we sabotaging something that we work on everyday?”
She adds that the JMPD did explain that its reason for sending fines via normal post is because people stopped picking up the registered mail from the post office.
“We need drivers to see all their infringements. It was piling up there and people keep driving fast.”
However, Aarto manager the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) have said this method of delivery violates the Act and must be stopped since it invalidates fines.
Japh Chuwe, acting registrar of the RTIA, says the JMPD is not justified in sending traffic infringements via normal post. “Any justification provided is not in terms of the legal parameters provided for in the Aarto Act, 1998 (Act No 46 of 1998).”
Mayoral meeting
In December, ITWeb reported that due to this non-compliance with the Act, more than eight million fines had been invalidated.
Collins Letsoalo, acting CEO of the RTMC, says this issue has been discussed with the JMPD. “We are the ones that raised the issue with the Road Traffic Infringement Agency. We were only told in December that this is still happening.”
He says the corporation will meet with the mayoral committee on this matter. “Hopefully the meeting will happen next week, but it has not been confirmed.”
No rollout
Dembovsky says this non-compliance is one of the reasons Aarto will not be ready by April, the deadline by which the RTMC wants all municipalities to be ready to implement the system.
However, despite media reports, Letsoalo says there would be no national rollout of the points demerit system in April.
Spokesperson at the Department of Transport (DOT) Logan Maistry explains that - based on representations from labour and other interested parties - transport minister Sibusiso Ndebele postponed the rollout of Aarto until further engagements have taken place.
The consultation process was introduced to avoid the backlash that accompanied the controversial Gauteng e-tolling project, which has been suspended due to outrage over the tariffs and system, as a whole.
“This engagement will happen in the form of the Aarto summit. The summit hasn't happened as yet and there's no date for the national rollout either.
“But, in the meantime, the system is being prepared and people are being trained. It's a system operations issue.”
Ready, set...
Maistry says the RTMC on Wednesday wrote a letter to municipalities to say the systems should be ready by 1 April, even though a national rollout will happen.
“There was a letter we sent out saying that each and every province must be ready to rollout the system in April so that when the minister announces the implementation date, each and every person will be ready,” says Letsoalo.
He adds that there is a task team that will meet to decide on a date for the Aarto summit.
Let's do it
Dembovsky says there is absolutely no way the system will be ready by April, considering the outstanding problems. “Unless they've been doing something in the background that we don't know about.”
He adds that the DOT initially said the summit would happen in June last year, but has still not happened.
“I'm gatvol of all this nonsense. Let's get it rolled out now. Enough of it only affecting two places. Bring the points demerit system in, because people are not behaving on the roads. I'm quite happy to see people's licences get suspended if they deserve it.
“This having been said, 1 April 2012 is also fast approaching and I cannot for the life of me see how Aarto can be rolled out to a further 283 municipalities and metros in a mere two-and-a-bit months. I also have not heard a single thing about any amendments to the draft regulations published in April 2011 being published or proclaimed. That draft was so flawed, it was just not funny.
“Whoever heard of national legislation being 'piloted' anyway? Is government planning on 'piloting' the Protection of State Information Bill in Johannesburg and Tshwane when it railroads it through Parliament? Of course not! So why on earth did they do so with Aarto?
“This country urgently needs a functional and procedurally fair points-demerit system to get motorists to take traffic offences seriously, but if the current custodians of Aarto continue to act as they are acting, I can assure you that Aarto will be an unmitigated disaster of epic proportion for South Africa.”
With the Aarto system, drivers earn demerit points when they commit traffic offences, and this will be reflected on the National Contravention Register on eNatis. After 12 demerits are gained, a driver's licence will be suspended.
Pilot projects are being run in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
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