What you should know about Traffic Law (but few will tell you).
A perspective provided by Justice Project South Africa

It has been officially announced that AARTO, in its entirety and including the demerit-points system will be implemented nationwide on 1 April 2010. Whether this is an early April fool’s joke or not remains to be seen but it is highly unlikely that this is the intention.

At first glance, the idea of a system that truly penalises the scores of inconsiderate and downright reckless drivers on our roads is a welcome change and levelling of the playing field for those of us who stick to the rules of the road and endeavour to drive courteously.

However, when one receives five speeding fines in the post, representing a total of 15 points – a nine month suspension of your driver’s license – only to find out that the fines were captured by cameras set to trap motorists in a 120km/h zone for exceeding 80km/h, the original fervour rapidly evaporates.

This has been the experience of many (tens of thousands actually) people during the pilot implementation of AARTO in Johannesburg where thankfully, the points-demerit system was not in place at the time. Those in Tshwane have experienced another type of problem in discovering that courtesy letters and enforcement orders have been issued against them, after they have paid their fines within the allotted 32 days.

On looking even deeper, it would appear that AARTO is certainly going to impose demerit-points on ordinary vehicle owners and driver’s licence holders but the really dangerous operators are going to be able to buy their way out of it – legally.

The Act makes provision for the payment of fines at three times the fine value for proxies – those whose name appears as the registered owner of fleet vehicles – without the associated demerit-points being added to any real person’s driver’s license instead of forcing them to nominate the driver who may indeed be a killer waiting for a place to commit culpable homicide. This is bizarre and a very real weakness in the system.

It may come as a surprise to you, but minibus taxis – the very group of motorists everyone loves to hate – are generally owned by enterprises where a proxy is elected to be the registered owner and therefore entitles these enterprises to continue employing reckless drivers with little other consequence than financial penalty which can be recovered from increasing fares.

Similarly transport companies that engage in overloading and allow their drivers to exceed the 80km/h speed limit which applies to goods and articulated vehicles over 9000 Kg and the 100km/h speed limit which applies to busses and taxis get to buy their way out of the situation too.

This means that only ordinary motorists will be most affected by the system and the claimed resultant increase in road safety may indeed just be a pipe dream or load of hot air once again.

Then there’s the fact that traffic cops engage in corrupt practices like soliciting bribes from motorists by threatening them with exorbitant fines and the resultant points on their driver’s license. Almost anyone faced with a R2500 fine and 6 points on their driver’s licence for a petty offence for which they are stopped by a traffic cop will consider paying the cop R500 or less to let them go with no consequences.

The fact is that not only is there no fine that exceeds R1500 but there are very few infringements that would earn you 6 points in the AARTO charge book. Just as it is often said that “ignorance of the law is no excuse”, it is equally true to say that ignorance will open you up to falling victim to corruption. If you pay bribes, you are a criminal and don’t come to us for help.

As a motorist, you owe it to yourself to become fully conversant with traffic law and how AARTO will affect you. The old practice of budgeting for traffic fines has to be abandoned and far greater concentration on complying with the law and being courteous to other road users must come into play.

If you are not sure whether your address and vehicle details on eNatIS are correct, then best you check on these and have them corrected before AARTO comes into play. Simply pleading that you did not receive AARTO notices in the post will no longer wash if they are indeed sent by registered mail.

The migration of traffic law from the Criminal Procedures Act to the civil actions of AARTO means that summonses no longer need to be served on you in person and the address on record is deemed to be correct – even if you no longer reside or receive post there. It is your responsibility to make sure that you keep your details up to date – not that of the traffic authorities.

Civil law in South Africa does not require the physical serving of summons to a living, breathing human being. Throwing one over the wall or gate at your registered address is considered perfectly acceptable and whilst this is nonsensical, no-one has bothered to challenge this practice so it remains in force. A notice sent by registered mail is deemed to be delivered after 10 days from positing under the AARTO Act, so don’t think you can get away with not collecting your notices either.

If you have been one of the masses not supporting the efforts of JPSA, then now is the time to get off your rear end and get behind them to ensure that your rights are not trampled into the ground. We cannot continue to help you if you do not lend us your support and let’s be blunt, we need money.

For more details visit www.jp-sa.org.

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