Aarto Act ‘not geared for road safety, but revenue collection’

The draft regulations for the amended Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act are not “cast in stone”, the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) has said.

The agency has welcomed the intense debate on the Aarto Act draft rules, including the outcry on the introduction of the alleged “double-dipping” in the form of the infringement penalty levy.

Automobile Association (AA) spokesperson Layton Beard said “the R100 levy is totally new”.

It is payable for every issued infringement notice.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has echoed the AA’s view that the regulations were more geared to revenue collection than road safety.

“There’s a big push to make money in this system by bullying those served with infringement notices or summonses to just pay up immediately and shut up,” Outa chief legal officer advocate Stefanie Fick said.

The “nasty” part was that the levy was in addition to the fine and there was no discount on it.

Fick said contesting fines was risky in that those who paid within 28 days would get a 50% discount, but those who contested fines and lost would be required to pay the full fine, plus fees for opposing it.

“How is this fair? Paying late or contesting fines attracts extra fees: R100 for a ‘courtesy letter’ reminder and R100 for an enforcement order confirming the fine and demerits. Motorists pay R60 to R240 to check how many demerit points they have and R60 per report for copies of infringement reports,” she said.

Fick said the other bone of contention was that the draft regulations still had the part about penalising e-toll defaulters.

“We’ve raised this issue before as a concern that it will be used against e-toll defaulters, but it’s still in the schedule,” she said.

RTIA spokesperson Monde Mkalipi said the agency welcomed the commitment by the AA and Outa to make their submissions by the November 10 cut-off date and that the bulk of submissions received so far were from individual motorists.

“This is exciting for us as it shows the interest and participation in this important process.

“The AA contributions will, like all other comments being submitted, receive the necessary attention whenever the time for processing arrives.

“We continue to call more road safety organisations and individuals to make submissions as this law and its regulations are about road safety and nothing else.”

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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