Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) has officially taken the decision and action to programmatically cancel all of the unpaid illegal Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) infringement notices it issued in violation of the prescripts of Section 30(1) of the AARTO Act. Section 30(1).
The act states that “any document required to be served on an infringer in terms of this Act, must be served on the infringer personally or sent by registered mail to his or her last known address.” JMPD failed to do so.
It was on this basis that Justice Project South Africa (JPSA) lodged a complaint with the Public Protector in June 2011, which resulted in the JMPD being found to have engaged in maladministration in the report entitled “A Matter of Interpretation” in December 2014, the remedial action recommended was for the JMPD to print an “apology” in Johannesburg Newspapers and this was done in March 2015.
At around the same time, the JMPD stated in a media conference that members of the public who had received such unlawful fines would have to “apply to have them cancelled”. JPSA immediately wrote to both, the JMPD and (Road Traffic Infringement Agency) RTIA pointing out the massive administrative burden this so-called “solution” would place on the public, the RTIA and the JMPD. They also pointed out the fact that the JMPD was continuing to collect revenues on illegally issued infringement notices.
This, coupled with the Public Protector’s report and JMPD has gone further than merely complying with the remedial action stipulated by the Public Protector.
In addition, the JMPD has also cancelled all AARTO infringement notices it issued which were not entered into the National Contraventions Register as is prescribed by the AARTO Act. This affects all AARTO infringement notices starting with the prefix 02-4024 it issued since 1 April 2009 but does not affect lawful AARTO infringement notices which were issued in compliance with the Act, through the National Contraventions Register which runs on the eNaTIS registry, nor does it affect “no admission of guilt” criminal offences.
“JPSA wishes to commend the JMPD for finally coming clean, complying with the law and doing the right thing in this matter. We also wish to commend them for going further than merely complying with the report of the Public Protector,” said JPSA’s national chairperson Howard Dembovsky.
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