Strict new driving rules for South Africa hit a roadblock

The Road Traffic Infringement Agency has confirmed that the second phase of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Act rollout has been delayed.

Following the Constitutional Court ruling affirming the constitutionality of the act in mid-2023, the transport department laid out a phased plan to roll out the new AARTO system nationwide.

Phase 1 of the AARTO rollout started back in 2021 and has already been completed, characterised by the following:

• Finalisation and translation of the draft AARTO Regulations
• Provision of infrastructure to issuing authorities to enhance connectivity to the Natis by all the 213 issuing authorities
• Training of traffic officers
• Signing of contracts with Government printing works on the production of AARTO stationery
• Setting up and testing the electronic service
• Setting up of AARTO service outlets across the country
• Preparations to conduct AARTO stakeholder legislative workshops to institutionalise AARTO at workplaces
• Rolling AARTO public education and community awareness on the benefits of the national implementation of this legislation.

Phase 2 of the rollout – which will include the introduction of AARTO in the 69 municipalities across the country – was expected to begin on 1 February. This has been postponed until further notice.

Phase 3 will culminate in the phasing in of AARTO in the remaining 144 jurisdictions, and phase 4 is the introduction of the points demerit system and the rehabilitation programme.

The department planned to have the system fully implemented by July 2024.

The RTIA said that the delay in launching phase 2 of the rollout is due to the agency and the Department of Transport still being in the process of “finalising certain issues” which would have to be included in the Proclamation of the AARTO Amendment Act.

This process is “absolutely necessary for the implementation of phase 2,” it said. As such, the phase could not be launched by the planned date.

“The date of the second phase of the rollout will be announced as soon as all the activities in relation to the finalisation of the proclamation notice are finalised,” the RTIA said.

The AARTO is a whole set of new regulations that will govern traffic offences in South Africa – including introducing a new points demerit system that will see drivers accrue ‘demerit points’ for violating traffic laws. Once a points threshold is reached, licences will be suspended.

The laws also make provision for new offences to be added, even those relating to admin, such as failing to update addresses.

The Act also changes how violations are processed. Currently, violations are processed through the courts in terms of the Criminal Procedures Act – this will switch to the AARTO Act.

While AARTO will be new to much of the country, the system has been in effect in Johannesburg and Tshwane since 2008. The points demerit system, however, is entirely new.

Read: Deadline set for South Africa’s strict new driving rules