For Aarto to work, stop licence fraud

While the Constitutional Court ruled that the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act is not illegal, it still remains to be seen whether it is workable.

The critical assessment of the controversial legislation will be in whether, over time, it helps modify the behaviour of South African motorists and reduces our horrific road traffic death toll.

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In theory, the idea of having demerit points put on a driver’s licence is a good one – because the offending motorist will know that when they hit maximum, they will lose that licence.

However, in practice, the proposed severity of the punishment may well increase the opportunities for bribery. There is also a well-founded fear – given the government’s abysmal track record with IT systems – that computer system glitches will result in miscarriages of justice.

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However, the elephant in the road traffic safety room is that most drivers are incompetent. And that is because our system of training and certifying the users of motor vehicles is not strict enough.

Not only that, the reality which has to be dealt with is that there are millions of fraudulent licences obtained through corruption. Unless you stop that, Aarto will be useless in improving road safety.

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