Employers warned of Aarto pitfalls

Ella Smook
Article published with permission – Cape Argus Newspaper

Employers have been warned to be “extremely cautious” in dealing with employees’ traffic-related offences after the implementation of the new road traffic offences system, as failure to do so could lead to the immobilisation of company vehicles or seizure of company property. In an article written for the South African Labour Guide, presented to the mayoral committee (Mayco) for consideration last week, labour expert Jan du Toit detailed the implications of the new Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) system, which is set for implementation in Cape Town.

The original date for implementation, July 1, was recently withdrawn at the 11th hour by President Jacob Zuma in the face of imminent court action by the city and province. A new implementation date has not yet been determined. Mayco was given an update last week on the progress of discussions between local authorities, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and other stakeholders.

In his assessment, Du Toit outlined the processes that would follow traffic offences once the new system was implemented, from the option of receiving a 50 percent discount if a fine was paid within 32 days to going to court to challenge the validity of a fine. He said businesses could start running into trouble if fines were not responded to timeously, or because of the demerit system that could see drivers lose their licences. Failure to deal with offences could lead to the immobilisation of company vehicles or the attachment of company property to defray penalties, Du Toit warned.
“The other dilemma that employers are facing is that employees can incur demerit points in their private capacity without the employer even knowing that the employee is no longer allowed to drive vehicles on our roads. “This, in turn, has severe implications in terms of insurance and public liability,” he said.

Du Toit advised employers to implement and consistently apply “strict policies and procedures” in dealing with traffic-related offences and fines. These would include measures to deal with the administrative process involved in fines received under Aarto, and the payment of fines and recovery from the employee. The latter would have to avoid falling foul of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

Another measure to be considered would be the regular verification of drivers’ licences to ensure that private actions did not impact on the employment relationship. “Aarto is no walk in the park, and employers are advised to familiarise themselves with the act, and to implement measures to deal with the repercussions of the act,” Du Toit said. Meanwhile, acting RTMC head Colin Letsoalo said a new implementation date would probably be announced within the next three months.
“We are still discussion with all authorities,” he told the Cape Argus. Letsoalo said one of the major hurdles that still needed to be cleared was the concern over the potential loss of revenue by local authorities. “Our view is that we are not introducing it for the purposes of revenue, therefore it should not be a consideration,” he said, adding that the concern was not unique to Cape Town.

Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith said there were “significant staff, training, recruitment and back office implications” that needed to be addressed by local authorities, as well as a range of legal issues and conflicts with the Criminal Procedure Act that were still being discussed.

He warned that the city “might be back with some kind of dispute” if there was “again a premature attempt” to implement Aarto before “all aspects of the rollout plan” were addressed.

• This article was originally published on page 4 of The Cape Argus on July 26, 2010
• Our Appreciation to the Cape Argus newspaper for permission to publish this article…