High Court declares demerit system invalid and unconstitutional
The court ordered the Minister of Transport and the RTIA to pay OUTA’s costs, including the costs of two counsel.
THE Pretoria High Court delivered its ruling on the constitutionality of the AARTO acts. The verdict the court came to declared both the main act and the amendment act as unconstitutional.
Judge Annali Basson found in favour of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) and agreed with OUTA’s position that the legislation unlawfully intrudes upon the exclusive executive and legislative competence of the local provincial governments envisaged in the Constitution, preventing local and provincial governments from regulating their own affairs.
The respondents in the case were the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the Road Traffic Infringement Authority (RTIA) and the Appeals Tribunal.
The court ordered the Minister of Transport and the RTIA to pay OUTA’s costs, including the costs of two counsel.
OUTA had raised its concerns and objections about the AARTO Act and the published AARTO Amendment Act for a number of years, and voiced their concerns with relevant authorities before the Amendment Act was published.
The organisation said they believe that this traffic legislation is unconstitutional and will ultimately not decrease the number of fatalities on South African roads.
In her judgement, honourable Judge Basson concluded the following: ‘It therefore follows in my view that the AARTO Act and the Amendment Act must be declared to be inconsistent with the Constitution in its entirety. It is therefore declared the AARTO Act and the Amendment Acts are unconstitutional invalid.’
