{"id":749346,"date":"2024-02-06T16:20:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T14:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=749346"},"modified":"2024-02-06T16:33:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T14:33:47","slug":"strict-new-driving-rules-for-south-africa-hit-a-roadblock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/749346\/strict-new-driving-rules-for-south-africa-hit-a-roadblock\/","title":{"rendered":"Strict new driving rules for South Africa hit a roadblock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phase 1 of the AARTO rollout started back in 2021 and has already been completed, characterised by the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Finalisation and translation of the draft AARTO Regulations<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Provision of infrastructure to issuing authorities to enhance connectivity to the Natis by all the 213 issuing authorities<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Training of traffic officers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Signing of contracts with Government printing works on the production of AARTO stationery<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Setting up and testing the electronic service<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Setting up of AARTO service outlets across the country<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Preparations to conduct AARTO stakeholder legislative workshops to institutionalise AARTO at workplaces<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rolling AARTO public education and community awareness on the benefits of the national implementation of this legislation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Phase 2 of the rollout &#8211; which will include the introduction of AARTO in the 69 municipalities across the country &#8211; <strong>was expected to begin on 1 February<\/strong>. This has been postponed until further notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The department planned to have the system fully implemented by July 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 &#8220;finalising certain issues&#8221; which would have to be included in the Proclamation of the AARTO Amendment Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This process is &#8220;absolutely necessary for the implementation of phase 2,&#8221; it said. As such, the phase could not be launched by the planned date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; the RTIA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The AARTO is a whole set of new regulations that will govern traffic offences in South Africa &#8211; including introducing a new points demerit system that will see drivers accrue &#8216;demerit points&#8217; for violating traffic laws. Once a points threshold is reached, licences will be suspended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The laws also make provision for new offences to be added, even those relating to admin, such as failing to update addresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Act also changes how violations are processed. Currently, violations are processed through the courts in terms of the Criminal Procedures Act &#8211; this will switch to the AARTO Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/705883\/deadline-set-for-south-africas-strict-new-driving-rules\/\">Deadline set for South Africa\u2019s strict new driving rules<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rollout of South Africa&#8217;s strict new driving rules under the AARTO Act has been hit with delays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":724700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-749346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749346"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749404,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749346\/revisions\/749404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}