Pretoria High Court halts rollout of AARTO plan
The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) rollout plan, that was supposed to introduce the start of the demerit system in July, has been halted by the High Court in Pretoria after the court declared it unconstitutional and invalid. The matter was first brought to court by Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) which questioned whether the national government had the competencies to legislate matters regarding the provincial and municipal traffic or road issues.
In a statement, Stefanie Fick, the executive director of the accountability and governance divisions at Outa says they are very pleased with the court’s decision.
“Outa believes that Aarto in its current format does nothing to improve road safety, nor does it reduce the scourge of road fatalities in South Africa. We are satisfied that the judgment will be sending government back to the drawing board. This time around we trust the relevant departments will engage meaningfully with civil society to obtain our input when developing such important policies for the country. South Africa needs effective processes enabled by fair adjudication that complies with the constitution.”
The rollout plan was currently in phase three which started on January 1, that will see municipalities added unto the Aarto system just in time for phase four in July.
Before this, various service outlets were introduced nationally, eNatis was enabled to collect Aarto payments and various awareness campaigns were held across the country to educate residents on the Aarto system.
Minister Fikile Mbalula has confirmed during the announcement of the festive season statistics that the department will be appealing the decision. “Aarto is the final piece of the puzzle in the implementation of a new road traffic management system by the democratic state. The importance of Aarto in driving a behaviour change of motorist and providing disincentives for unbecoming conduct cannot be over emphasised. It is for these reasons that we have decided to appeal the ruling of the Pretoria High Court declaring the Aarto Act unconstitutional and invalid.”