Point system put on hold

Johannesburg - Transport Minister S’bu Ndebele will postpone the implementation of the controversial Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act originally set for four metropolitan councils next week and November 1 countrywide.

On Thursday evening JP Smith, a Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security, said that the city had received such an undertaking from Ndebele, but it was not clear whether the earlier announcement in the Government Gazette could be withdrawn before the act’s commencement on July 1.

Collins Letsoalo, the acting chief executive of the Road Traffic Management Corporation, which administers Aarto, told Sake24 that notices about the coming into force of Aarto on July 1 in four Metros and countrywide on November 1 would be withdrawn before Thursday, even if a special Government Gazette had to be published to that effect.

New dates have so far not been determined.

If this withdrawal does not take place, Aarto comes into effect on July 1 in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Ekurhuleni and Durban, and countrywide on November 1, with the inclusion of the demerit point system which can cost motorists their driver's licences.

Sake24 has previously reported that Aarto trials in Johannesburg and Pretoria were riddled with problems.

René Venter, whose business Avax-SA 466CC administers traffic fines on behalf of 180 companies with a collective fleet of 15 000 vehicles, warned that problems with Aarto could bring companies' entire fleets to a standstill.

The Cape Metropolitan Council has held back its urgent application for an interdict against implementing the system, and will take a final decision on Friday as to whether or not to go ahead.

- Sake24.com