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Demerit points for road traffic infringements are set to become a major feature in the lives of South African motorists.
This follows the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) on Wednesday declaring the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act and the Aarto Amendment Act constitutional and valid.
The ConCourt judgment overturned a January 2022 judgment by the High Court in Pretoria that the Aarto acts were unconstitutional and invalid.
The ConCourt judgment, written by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, was unanimous.
The accumulation by a motorist of a specified number of demerit points will lead to the suspension and cancellation of their driving licence, professional driving permit, or operator cards.
The ConCourt disagreed with Outa’s argument that the legislation unlawfully intrudes on the exclusive executive and legislative competence of the local and provincial governments envisaged in the Constitution, preventing local and provincial governments from regulating their own affairs.
Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga welcomed the judgment, adding it will remove the uncertainty created by this legal challenge.
Chikunga said the implementation of this law across the country has been pending for 25 years, with pilots in place in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
With this judgment having cleared the path for the implementation of Aarto, we will move with speed to roll out its implementation across the country without delay.
“In the coming days, we will ensure that the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) mobilises the necessary capacity and proceeds with its rollout plans across all municipalities in the country.
"We will equally move with speed with the implementation of the points demerit system, an important cornerstone of the Aarto Act intended to drive motorist behaviour on our roads."
"We are also ready to finalise our recommendations to the President for the appointment of the [Appeals] Tribunal and the proclamation of the Aarto Act implementation as well as the Aarto Amendment Act,” she said.
Outa executive director Advocate Stefanie Fick said Outa is disappointed with the ConCourt decision and believes the government will struggle to implement the Aarto Act because of the ‘red tape’ and potential for corruption.
"Outa believes that measures to improve road safety and reduce fatalities are urgently needed. “However, we don’t believe the Aarto Acts will achieve this. It’s just not practically possible," she said.
Fick said Outa believes the practical challenges of Aarto are largely due to poor enforcement, a lack of administrative discipline in regard to traffic infringement management, and a variety of problems in the management of vehicle and driver licensing.
The Automobile Association (AA) said it respects the ConCourt’s decision but remains concerned that Aarto will not deliver on its intended outcomes of improving road safety and reducing road carnage on South Africa’s roads.
"We stand by our previous views that the Aarto legislation is geared towards revenue collection and not on promoting safer roads. There is no evidence that the Aarto pilot project saved a single life."
Chief Justice Zondo said in the judgment that the Aarto Act, like the National Road Traffic Act, regulates matters that must appropriately be regulated nationally.
Zondo said a person licensed to drive a vehicle may drive the vehicle anywhere in South Africa and on any type of road.
"It would lead to chaos if each province or each municipality had its own rules about safety on the road … This would not prevent a province or municipality from passing an ordinance or by-law to create additional rules or offences to cater for regional or municipal concerns," he said.
Zondo ruled the Aarto Act falls within the concurrent legislative competence of the national and provincial spheres of government in Part A of Schedule 4 to the Constitution.
