{"id":235431,"date":"2018-04-04T07:46:38","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T05:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=235431"},"modified":"2018-04-04T07:46:38","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T05:46:38","slug":"gauteng-motorists-could-lose-licenses-for-not-paying-e-tolls-under-new-laws-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/235431\/gauteng-motorists-could-lose-licenses-for-not-paying-e-tolls-under-new-laws-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Gauteng motorists could lose licenses for not paying e-tolls under new laws: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a number of problems\u00a0<\/b><\/a>currently surrounding the proposed\u00a0Administrative Adjunction of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act and its amendments, public hearings on the Act have now raised several new issues with the incoming traffic laws.<\/p>\n

The latest of these public hearings was heard\u00a0in Mamelodi in Tshwane at the end of March, where it emerged that ignoring e-toll gantries is likely to constitute a demerit on your licence – and could ultimately lead to its suspension.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Star<\/a><\/strong> on Wednesday (4 April),\u00a0Outa portfolio manager for transport Rudie Heyneke said that under the incoming Amendment, ignoring the gantries would be the same as ignoring other road traffic signs.<\/p>\n

This was clarified in an answer given at the hearings by the Road Traffic Infringement Agency\u2019s (RTIA)\u00a0chief operations officer, Thato Tsholetsane.<\/p>\n

It was further confirmed to the newspaper by RTIA spokesperson Monde Mkalipi, who said that e-toll violations were under discussion for the new Aarto regulations, but that they had not yet been finalised.<\/p>\n

Public hearings\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Public hearings on the Aarto Act are still set to go ahead in three more provinces, with both government and civil society groups urging South Africans to get involved in the process.<\/p>\n

In a statement released<\/a> <\/strong>at the end of February,\u00a0the Justice Project South Africa (JPSA) cautioned that ‘a\u00a0remarkably high number of people’ appear to view the Act and its amendments as an effort by government to introduce a points-demerit system, and little more.<\/p>\n

While the Aarto Act does bring a points-demerit system with it, there is a lot more to it than that, and in fact, the points-demerit system represents but a small part of the Aarto Act\u2019s mechanisms and real purpose,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed, had there been any desire to do so, introducing a points-demerit system in South Africa could have easily been achieved decades ago \u2013 by simply making a few minor amendments to road traffic legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real purpose of the Aarto Act is to migrate the prosecution of road traffic offences \u2013 for which an admission of guilt fine may be payed \u2013 from the Criminal Procedure Act and the judicial authority of the courts, to an administrative, process driven scheme, orchestrated by a far-from-independent State Owned Enterprise which is funded almost entirely by traffic fines and the fees raised on them,\u201d the JPSA said.<\/p>\n

Some of the other considerations under the new amendments that the JPSA outlined include:<\/p>\n