AARTO Fleet Solutions

KZN ready for AARTO demerit system

January 23 2012 at 10:12am

By Yusuf Moolla and Kamini Padayachee

Pietermaritzburg traffic offenders have been urged to make use of a six month amnesty to pay half of the fines owed to the municipality.

The KZN Transport Department and eThekwini’s metro police say their officers are ready to implement the Administrative Adjudication of

the Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) system.

This comes after the national Traffic Department told municipalities and provincial traffic departments last week that they should be

prepared for the national roll-out of the system by April 1.

The Aarto system involves the introduction of a demerit system in which motorists start off with 12 points and have points deducted for

committing traffic offences.

The result could eventually be the loss of licences. The system was implemented as pilot projects in both Tshwane and Joburg in 2008.

These pilot programmes follow all the processes required by the Aarto act. However, during this stage motorists accrue points for

offences, but the points will be removed once the system is implemented nationally.

KwaZulu-Natal Transport Department spokesman Kwanele Ncalane said the province was battling with the issue of tightening legislation

for road offences and, therefore, welcomed the new system.

He said the public needed to realise that the act was because of the number of accidents on the roads, and the general disregard for road

safety.

Ncalane did not think that the new system would be difficult to implement and was confident that training and development would ensure

the smooth running of the operation.

Metro police spokesman Eugene Msomi confirmed that the department had received the notice. Msomi said that officers were geared up

for the roll-out and had received training on the Aarto act.

Road Traffic Management Corporation spokesman Ashref Ismail confirmed that notices had been sent to traffic departments and

municipalities to be prepared to implement the system by April 1.

“We have asked that all relevant departments be prepared for national roll-out by April 1. After that, the date for the system to go live

nationally will be announced by Transport Minister S’bu Ndebele,” he said.

Ismail said all provinces except North-West had indicated readiness for the system at the last Aarto national meeting in November.

He said that legislation had been amended as a result of the problems identified during the pilot phases. Ndebele would hold a summit to

discuss the implementation of the Aarto act next month or in March.

Ismail said: “This system has been in the (planning) for the past five years or so; we cannot now be held to ransom by one or two

municipalities… People are dying on the country’s roads, and we are confident that this system will reduce the high number of deaths.” -

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