AARTO ACT DEMERIT SYSTEM TO START 1 JULY

The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act is set to roll out on 1 July. This was announced by the Department of Transport earlier this week.

The proposed bill has faced major backlash from civic organisations as well as other traffic law-enforcement agencies within the country, reports IOL.

According to AARTO's website, this is how the system will work:

•          Everyone starts with no (zero) demerit points on their driving licence.
  
  
•       The number of points incurred will depend on the nature of the traffic offence or charge.
  
  
•       The current prescribed limit is 12 points, while this could be changed to 15 points according to the draft AARTO Amendment Regulations.
  
  
•       When the limit is exceeded, a driving licence will be suspended for three months for every point over the threshold.
  
  
•       A driving licence can only be suspended twice, after that it will be cancelled.
  
  
•       Once the suspension period is over and the driving licence has been cancelled, a driver may apply for a learner permit again.

Here's an example of how many points will be deducted per offence as published on the KZN Traffic Department's Facebook page:

The system relies heavily on third-party systems which could lead to administrative nightmares, non-governmental organisation OUTA has warned.

Image credit: The South African