JCCI warns against Aarto

2010-11-08 17:12

Johannesburg - The new traffic demerit system will impact negatively on owners of company vehicles and their drivers, an independent consultant for the Johannesburg Chamber Of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) said on Monday.

If a driver committed a traffic offence, both the driver and the vehicle's owner would receive demerit points, according to the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (Aarto), Ian Moss told reporters in Johannesburg.

Trade union Solidarity, civil rights group AfriForum and the JCCI were announcing steps to stop Aarto's implementation.

The system was currently being used on a trial basis in some cities.

For a traffic offence, the operator would receive four demerit points and the driver one, Moss said.

After having accumulated 12 points the person's licence would be suspended for three months.

"It's easy to get to 12 points and this would leave an owner without a driver and a driver without a job," Moss said.

Aarto offers motorists issued with fines several options. Motorists can pay within 32 days and get a 50% discount, or provide proof they were not the driver at the time of the offence, or make an affidavit to appeal the penalty, or apply to pay the fine off in instalments, or challenge the infringement in court.

Moss said the latter option would lead to an even bigger backlog in the courts, as they were not capable of dealing with their current workload.

Aarto was going to cost industry billions of rands, he said.

- SAPA