1. PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT ON THE ROLLOUT OF
THE ADMINISTRATIVE ADJUDICATION OF
ROAD TRAFFIC OFFENCES (AARTO) PILOT PHASE
Presented by:
Cllr M SUN
MMC: Public Safety
City of Johannesburg
09h00 to 12h00
Venue: G26, National Assembly
Building, Parliament

2. BACKGROUND OF AARTO
The City of Johannesburg has been appointed a piloting site for Aarto with effect from 2008, and later declared an AARTO area whereby the system fully functions and performs all duties. The City of Johannesburg started with the partial uploading of AARTO 03 notices in June This was due to development that still had to be done for interfaces between the Local Management Contravention Register (LMCR - Cyprus) and the National Contravention Register (NCR e- Natis). The Act clearly indicates that the infringements can be processed on the LMCR and then be uploaded to the NCR for further processing. The RTMC instructed COJ to resume uploading infringements on the NCR whereby the City was no longer allowed to make use of the LMCS (Local Management Contravention System, Ciprus) for any AARTO processes. Uploading of AARTO 01 notices commenced in April 2011, although no courtesy letters or enforcement orders followed as prescribed in the Act, Section 19(1) and Section 20(1).Uploading of AARTO 03 notices commenced in December 2012, and again no courtesy letters or enforcement orders followed RTMC / RTIA as prescribed in the Act, Section 19(1) and Section 20(1).

3. BACKGROUND CONTINUES…
In 2010 RTMC stopped paying for the City’s registered mail postage costs for the serving of infringement notices on offenders. The COJ in order to continue with traffic law enforcement was left with no choice but to serve infringement notices by ordinary mail since there was no budget for the cost of registered mail. The estimated cost of registered mail is approximately R10 million per month. The City of Johannesburg resumed serving of infringement notices by registered mail in The RTMC failed to honor their offer to pay for the postage fees of AARTO notices for the duration of the pilot period. The City of Johannesburg commenced with the pilot project in 2009, and has since been waiting for the National roll-out of AARTO.

4. CURRENT CHALLENGES
Courtesy letters and Enforcement Orders: The uploading of AARTO 01 notices commenced in April 2011, although no courtesy letters or enforcement orders were issued by RTIA as prescribed in the Act, Section 19(1) and Section 20(1). The uploading of AARTO 03 notices commenced in December 2012, and again no courtesy letters or enforcement orders were issued by RTIA as prescribed in the Act, Section 19(1) and Section 20(1)

5. CURRENT CHALLENGES CONTINUES…
Reduction in Payment of fines
When the RTIA issued courtesy letters and enforcement orders for a short while in the beginning of 2015, the payment of fines increased substantially for a few months.
The service of courtesy letters and enforcement orders by the RTIA as required by the Act and the SLA with the City ceased in October 2015, when the RTIA refused to pay SAPO, when SAPO could no longer render proof of service of documents by registered mail. The payment of fines has dropped substantially since then.

6. CURRENT CHALLENGES CONTINUES…
No service of Infringement Notices, Courtesy Letters and Enforcement orders by SAPO from September 2015 to date
The demerit points system has not been tested
The City followed the RTIA’s example of not paying SAPO when it could not produce proof that it had served infringement notices on traffic offenders.
No service of Courtesy letters and Enforcement orders by RTIA from October to date.

7. CURRENT CHALLENGES CONTINUES…
This had the following effect, SAPO refused to deliver infringement notices to traffic offenders because it said that it could not provide a service when it was not paid. Since the RTIA is not paying SAPO, SAPO is also not delivering courtesy letters and enforcement orders under the Act. During the time that SAPO was serving the infringement notices, the notice were issued to the offender after the discount period has lapsed and often the notices were never delivered. The current situation is that the City’s service providers on a large scale are processing infringements under the National Road Traffic Act, having these captured electronically on the ENaTIS System and submitting their invoices to the City. No infringement notices are served on offenders as SAPO, the only service provider that is competent to deliver these notices by registered mail, is not providing this service.

8. CURRENT CHALLENGES CONTINUES…
Infringer elects to be tried in Court for an infringement
This results in the;
Long and costly process of Summons printing and serving,
cost of paying the Summons servers and Service Providers for mass printing of summonses.
All AARTO cases are struck of the roll by magistrates

9. CURRENT CHALLENGES CONTINUES…
Negative effect on Law enforcement
The fact that traffic law infringements are captured but not enforced since infringement notices, courtesy letters and enforcement orders are not served on offenders, has had a serious negative effect on compliance with road traffic legislation and law enforcement in Johannesburg. The situation has reverted to the scenario of the bare minimum of law enforcement as described in the letter of the Executive Mayor to the Minister in January 2015, i.e. largely -

10. CURRENT CHALLENGES CONTINUES…
Traffic regulation at intersections;
Policing of parking meter transgressions under the City’s by-laws;
Prosecutions for drunken and reckless driving under the Criminal Procedure Act; and
AARTO 01 notices that are issued to drivers at road blocks. 
Serious and frequent road traffic violations continue to occur on a large scale since the offenders know that these will go unpunished. This is in contrast to the situation in neighbouring municipalities such as Ekurhuleni where road users display a much greater degree of compliance with the law since they know that they will be prosecuted if they don’t.

11. CURRENT CHALLENGES CONTINUES…
FINANCIAL YEAR
TOTAL FINES ISSUED
REVENUE COLLECTED
PERCENTAGE OF FINES PAYED
JULY 2007 – JUNE 2008
( Before piloting of AARTO)
10.25%
JULY 2008 – JUNE 2009
( During piloting of AARTO)
4.71%

12. COMPARISON OF FINES PAYMENT PERCENTAGE RATE BEFORE AND DURING AARTO IMPLEMENTATION…

13. CURRENT CHALLENGES CONTINUES…
ANALYSIS :
Less infringement notices were issued prior to the piloting of AARTO as a result of the impact of enforcement and prosecution through Criminal Procedure Act procedure .
More AARTO fines are issued but less prosecution of traffic offenders.
One of the City’s greatest challenges is to reduce the carnage on our roads significantly.
With the implementation of AARTO motorists are not complying with traffic regulations .
Traffic cases are not finalized and paid.

14. FINANCIAL IMPACT AND REVENUE GENERATED
The financial implications with regard to the application of AARTO in the City from inception until today are shown below. This shows the costs, income and expenses to the City, the payment rate of fines for each financial year and the current status.

15. REVENUE GENERATED YEAR TOTAL NO FINES ISSUED
Total Fines Issued Discount Amount
Income to City after expenses subtracted
Percentage of fines paid
1,712,931
R 448,052,350.00
R 21,121,212.42
25.99%
2,817,596
R 723,374,501.07
R 147,093,707.18
35.54%
3,812,209
R 1,215,909,075.00
R 142,040,501.29
25.90%
5,289,420
R 1,575,286,750.00
R 268,997,833.40
28.92%
5,639,333
R 1,355,101,725.00
R 92,803,167.54
21.29%
6,052,777
R 1,394,494,375.00
R -60,884,582.19
11.33%
4,601,406
R 1,114,786,100.00
R -25,467,856.25
13.04%
3,631,399
R 883,531,875.00
R 105,139,694.27
33,557,071
R 8,710,536,751.07
R 690,843,677.67
23.50%

16. CHALLENGES CONTINUES…
The City is of the view that sharing of Revenue with RTIA is unfair and against the public policy since the clock was stopped in October 2015 to date (courtesy letters and enforcement orders are not served to traffic law offenders).

17. LETTER OF EXECUTIVE MAYOR SENT TO THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT
The difficult history and the challenges the City had in implementing the Act over the years were described in a number of reports culminating in the letter by the Executive Mayor to the Minister of Transport in January The letter highlighted the expensive costs to the City with regard to the payments to its service providers and to SAPO for registered mail, the non compliance of the RTIA in terms of its SLA with the City, and as a result of the latter the serious challenge to the effectiveness of law enforcement in Johannesburg. The Mayor said that if this was not addressed, the City would have no choice but to utilise the dispute resolution mechanisms in terms of the SLA, and if this failed, to declare a formal intergovernmental dispute in terms of the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act, 2005.

18. LETTER OF EXECUTIVE MAYOR SENT TO THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT CONTINUES…
Response of Minister of Transport
In her letter of 30 January 2015 the Minister said that the RTIA had also been negatively affected by the 3 SAPO strikes in 2014, that the RTIA had resolved its financial problems, that it would comply with its obligations in terms of the Act and SLA by issuing courtesy letters and enforcement orders
respectively with effect from February and March 2015 and that therefore there was no need to utilise the dispute resolution mechanisms referred to in the letter by the Executive Mayor mentioned above.

19. MAYORAL COMMITTEE REPORT
In April 2016 this year the City manager was in possession of an in Committee report in which it was recommended that AARTO be suspended in the City of Johannesburg. The report is still under consideration

20. Thank you