Justice Project South Africa (JPSA) has noted the release issued by the Democratic Alliance with respect to the deficiencies of traffic law enforcement mechanisms to enforce the prosecution of eTolls, as well as the tweet by Mr Ian Ollis, shadow minister for transport wherein he tweeted: “DA demands that Aarto be repealed, the RTMC shut down and E-tolls in Gauteng scrapped. Traffic policing belongs with Provinces and cities”.
Whilst we are in full agreement that the vast majority of eToll prosecutions be unsuccessful with the current mechanisms in place; we strongly disagree that existence of the AARTO Act is what will lead to its downfall. The Criminal Procedure Act utilises the very same eNaTIS vehicle registry to acquire the particulars of alleged transgressors of traffic laws.
The eNaTIS registry is well known to be full of inaccurate and outdated information on registered vehicle owners; therefore when prosecutions are instituted the exact same problem will plague the Criminal Procedure Act with respect to service of notices and summonses which apply under the AARTO Act. The only real difference is that summonses which are routinely improperly served in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act will lead to Warrants of Arrest against people who never received the summonses in the first place.
It is an undeniable fact that the AARTO Act “pilot” has been extremely poorly implemented and that multiple abuses on the part of the likes of the JMPD and others have plagued it. It is however extremely disingenuous of the JMPD to bleat about “wasteful expenditure” when it was their very actions of disregarding Section 30(1) and regulation 3(1)(b) of the AARTO Act for 2½ years which directly contributed to the extremely low level of payment of AARTO infringement notices. People have become so used to the fact that the JMPD sent out illegal and unenforceable infringement notices that a habit of ignoring them has developed.
What is particularly alarming is the quantum of monies involved in the fines issued by the four issuing authorities under AARTO. Whilst the JMPD, TMPD, RTMC and Gauteng Department of Community Safety are all issuing authorities, the JMPD outstrips the infringement notices collectively issued by the other issuing authorities by several multiples. If the facts were revealed, we have no doubt that the vast majority of the alleged R2.068 Billion in AARTO infringement notices issued over a 2 year period is attributable to the JMPD, who additionally engage in little other “law enforcement” than camera speeding fines.
Additionally, the postal costs involved in issuing and serving an AARTO 01 infringement notice, which is written by a traffic officer at the time he or she stops a motorist, is ZERO. If physical law enforcement for moving violations was practiced by the JMPD; not only would the infringement notices be more likely to be paid, but people may just start behaving themselves on our roads. The JMPD unfortunately has no interest in working towards safer roads. To the contrary, it is purely financially driven and has turned traffic fines into nothing more than a budget item in the City of Johannesburg’s revenue stream. Other Municipalities have also been keen to follow their example.
Traffic enforcement in South Africa is in desperate need of revamping and the territorial battles with respect to which entity should benefit from the revenue streams that result from it in its current form is little short of disgusting! Somewhere along the line it seems to have been forgotten by all concerned that at least 14,000 people die on our roads each year and that the Road Accident Fund processed 170,000 claims for death and injury in 2012.
The AARTO Act should indeed be addressed as a matter of urgency and all concerned in its implementation brought to order with respect to how it is applied. However, we do not endorse the precept that it should be scrapped because it “robs” Provincial and Local authorities of their revenue streams, which it would additionally NOT do if it was properly applied. However, it must be noted that neither the Criminal Procedure Act, nor the AARTO Act are equipped to deal with the massive volumes of eToll non-compliance which it is as clear as daylight will become a reality if eTolls are not scrapped. It is furthermore patently clear that one of the biggest flies in the ointment is in fact unreliable information in the eNaTIS system makes enforcement after the fact practically unworkable.
Howard Dembovsky
National Chairman – Justice Project South Africa (NPC)