The Organization Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), Fines SA, and the Automobile Association (AA) have warned that the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act will be used to expedite traffic fine collections and place a massive and unnecessary burden on motorists, who will be presumed guilty until proven innocent.
The controversial legislation is already employed in certain metros but has been met with resistance from civil action groups and other municipalities for well over a decade.
Shifting the burden
The Aarto Act was first signed into law in 1998 and has been used by the Johannesburg and Tshwane metros to deal with traffic infringements since 2008.
However, the system is not employed anywhere else in South Africa, as other municipalities still manage traffic breaches in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA).
The supposed purpose of Aarto is to improve the country’s road safety through two key changes to the way that road violations are handled.
Firstly, the system makes a distinction between minor and serious offences, whereas the CPA treats all road incidents as criminal offences to be pursued by the National Prosecuting Authority.
Secondly, Aarto introduces a new demerit point system similar to those used in countries like the United Kingdom.
Under this policy, a motorist who accumulates enough points over a 12-month period can face serious consequences, such as the suspension of their licence.
The demerit system, in particular, has been a contentious topic for citizens, which is why it has yet to be introduced anywhere in South Africa, including the Aarto metros of Joburg and Tshwane.
However, Outa, Fines SA, and the AA have all warned there are also serious problems associated with changing most traffic offences to “minor infringements.”
Under Aarto, traffic infringements will be sorted administratively by default, which places a huge burden on those accused of an offence.
Civil action groups have raised multiple concerns that Aarto’s true goal is to expedite traffic fine collections and that citizens will be saddled with an overly complicated process for basic misdemeanors.
“When the offence is dealt with administratively, the motorist concerned does not have the right to be presumed innocent,” said Fines SA.
“He or she is a participant, albeit an unwilling one, in an administrative process.”
The system is likely to be a legal nightmare to navigate for citizens accused of less serious traffic violations.
Outa illustrated this by publishing a flow chart depicting what happens to a motorist once they receive an infringement notice, and what the possible consequences may look like:
Aarto was supposed to launch nationally on 1 July 2024 across 245 municipalities and seven metros in South Africa.
However, the project has been delayed yet again and has still not come into effect as of October 2024, marking a 26-year-long effort to introduce the legislation that first appeared in 1998.
A spanner was thrown into the works in 2020 when Outa approached the courts calling for Aarto to be declared unconstitutional and unlawful, which the Pretoria High Court ruled in favour of in 2022.
Outa also applied to the Constitutional Court for confirmation of the ruling, but the highest court ended up overturning the Pretoria Court’s decision in July 2023.
Amidst all these legal troubles, Aarto is now expected to be fully implemented nationwide by mid-2025, according to MyBroadband.
However, Outa believes that the rollout will be delayed again as the root problems of the Act have still not been addressed.
Aarto has been in practice in Gauteng for over a decade but has not manifested a substantial reduction in road accidents as intended, and it presents a burden to motorists while opening the doors for further corruption.
Several municipalities are also expected to resist the changes, as the new admin-centred approach means that the Road Traffic Infringement Agency would be able to claim up to 50% of an area’s traffic fine revenue.
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