From next month on the 1st December the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Amendment Act or also known as AARTO goes live in South Africa. Initially this will be a trial period until it officially goes live in September 2026. The idea and aim behind this new traffic offence system is to make SA roads safer which believe me even with good intentions this is not going to change anything.
South Africa averages somewhere between 12000-14000 road fatalities annually which is misleading as over 40% of these deaths are pedestrians. This is kind of a strange statistic unless you live in South Africa and witness what people do. If you have played the computer game Frogger where a frog tries to cross a free way unscathed then you would kind of understand. I used to be shocked at first seeing school kids crossing a free way every morning and to think this was just seen as acceptable behavior. This is normal for many people who choose to cross a freeway because there is no pedestrian bridges available. Many poorer communities live next to freeways in shack towns due to convenient transport access and why pedestrians are a common sight on freeways.
Let us start with the roads firstly as they are probably a 3 out of 10 and are simply dangerous. Stop streets are sometimes a guessing game with many of the stop signs missing and the road markings barely visible. If you are a non local not knowing can be fatal which also includes local knowledge of where the pot holes are. The non locals you can spot as they are normally the ones who have blown a tyre or worse driving through the hole. I actually don't think you can call many of these pot holes as they are just large holes. Traffic lights are either not working or they just simply do not exist anymore as they have been stolen with no evidence they even existed. If I count the traffic lights not working from the office to home I travel through 7 and 3 are or have not been working for over 12 months. One is a major intersection with 3 lanes on each 4 way intersection. You can imagine the confusion and how dangerous this becomes with most drivers having paid for their license not sure whose turn it is through not passing their learners or drivers test.
Visibility is another big problem with many of the country roads having no street lights and the roads having no cats eyes or if they are present have never been replaced and do not work. Guard rails over bridges have been stolen for scrap metal. Road work signs making no logical sense and just being simply dangerous and death traps.
Roadworthiness of vehicles is another point that needs to be mentioned as we do not have a certificate of roadworthiness and it is mind boggling seeing some of these vehicles driving on the roads. Many vehicles you can see the front and back of the vehicle at the same time due to a bent frame yet police do not pull them over. A local taxi last week killed 11 people when it stalled going up a hill and the brakes failed rolling backwards down the hill until it over turned rolling multiple times.
When you combine all of these factors together with a nation of drivers who you know would not pass a driving test this leads to a recipe for disaster. South Africans love their alcohol and a high percentage of the road fatalities happen over the festive and holiday periods.
AARTO's idea is to introduce a demerit system of 15 points where every one starts at 0 and once you reach 15 you are suspended for 3 months. For every point over the 15 3 months is added. 19 points means you lose your license for 1 year. If you reach 15 points 3 times then you have to redo the learners and driving test. Drink driving is not a suspended license and you could be charged 3 times for DUI in a one year period and still be allowed to drive. The demerit points only last for 3 months so one wonders for a normal person it would be very hard to have your license suspended.
The biggest problem I see is this is more about fine money as the demerit system is a farce knowing the points only last 3 months and not 12 months like they do in the UK. Crooked corrupt traffic cops will benefit from these new regulations and were bad enough before this upcoming traffic amendment. One would be advised to use a logbook because fines will be issued in error and you will need to know and prove you were not in that area. 5 years ago I was issued a summons for a traffic offence in a part of the country I have yet to visit. I ignored this at the time and you cannot do that under this new system.