The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has called on the president to refer the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Amendment (Aarto) Bill back to legislators before signing it into law.
Outa’s transport portfolio manager, Rudie Heyneke, believes that the bill, in its current form, could be challenged in the Constitutional Court, leaving the country without effective legislation that promotes road safety.
“The recent amendments have more to do with making money and appeasing a failed e-toll scheme than with tackling the declining road safety problem in South Africa,” said Heynecke.
On September 5 this year the National Assembly passed the Aarto Bill which, amongst others, seeks to accommodate the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) e-toll collection plight by trying to alleviate stringent debt collection and the court summons process via the Aarto Act, which is administrative by nature and more stringent on the public, according to Heynecke.
“The Amended Aarto Act effectively decriminalised the process and turns the non-payment of e-tolls into a civil process,” he said, adding that the scheme erred by removing the Constitutional rights of a person’s ability to defend him/ herself when being wrongly accused of a traffic infringement.
“Once caught up in the civil administrative system, the infringer does not have the same Constitutional right as they would be afforded during a criminal process ie, right to legal representation and a fair trial,” highlighted Heynecke.