Aarto rollout ‘very precarious’ at this point

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JIMMY MOYAHA: Now, alongside the announcement we got from Prasa [Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa], we also know that effective from 1st of July 2026, just last week, we got the implementation of the Aarto system.

This has been something that has been in the works and delayed on several occasions. We finally have the administrative junction of [the] Road Traffic Offences Act [and] the Road Traffic Infringement Agency [RTIA] coming into effect – the updated version of that.

We’re going to be taking a look at this and potentially looking at how the rollout could affect consumers.

I’m joined on the line by the chief executive officer of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse [Outa], Wayne Duvenage, to look at this and see what we make of it.

Wayne, lovely having you on our show, as always. Thanks so much for taking the time. The rollout is seemingly something that was on the cards, off the cards. You and I caught up about it when it was on the cards for December. Then it came off the table.

We finally see some of it coming to market in various shapes and forms. What do you make of how it has been implemented?

WAYNE DUVENAGE: Look, it’s very problematic. A number of the municipalities are still using the wrong forms. They don’t have everything in place.

The system has, we believe, not been stress-tested, so there are going to be problems.

But yes, let’s start at the beginning very briefly.

This is a process that’s been on and off, on and off, for actually 20 years.

We think they’re chasing a launch-day deadline as opposed to a readiness deadline or readiness capacity issue. So it is seriously problematic.

The people aren’t aware that the regulations were put out. There was no time given for any public commentary, which they have to do. And the law is also quite clear – the Appeals Tribunal needs to be in place when they launch, and it is not, even though the demerit points system has not been launched yet.

So lots of problems. We still think this is going to face some legal challenges, and we think it’s going to face more than that – administrative challenges – which makes it unworkable. So it’s in a very precarious position at the moment.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Wayne, you mentioned readiness versus launch in terms of implementation. I want to get your thoughts on perhaps what that does to taking us forward. Are we not saying we’re going one step forward and potentially two steps back because we might have to correct some of the things that we rushed to implement if those legal challenges do go that way?

WAYNE DUVENAGE: Yes. We know that Salga [South African Local Government Association] is challenging it legally. They didn’t get the urgency [application granted], but that doesn’t mean to say the merits of their case are not correct.

We’ve already seen some municipalities, like the City of Cape Town and DA-run municipalities who control their own revenue, and they are doing a good job of it, saying ‘We’re not prepared to give up half our revenue to the RTA [Roads and Transport Authority]’.

They’re entitled, by the way, to say that. This is something we raised right at the beginning of our Constitutional Court challenge, where the Constitutional Court, we believe, got it wrong. But we said, okay, ‘Fine, let it play out’ – and exactly what we called for is happening.

So some municipalities are saying: ‘Sorry, we’ll upload the information for your point-demerit system when that comes, but for now we are not handing over our collection process to RTA. We’re doing it well, we’re in control of it, we have our executive authorities in that regard to do so, and we will not be forced to comply or split in with your system.’

So again, all of these things are starting to happen. They are not ready.

Sixty-two municipalities out of 247 are in the first phase, and we’re already seeing problems.

And again, we’ve said to the minister, we said to the RTIA right in the beginning, that we have so many issues with this. We are not opposed to good administration and systems. But if they can’t work, if they’re unenforceable, if they can’t be implemented, don’t rush ahead.

Get it right, get it fixed, and then implement it because you will lose the public, you’ll lose trust.

Government just doesn’t need this loss in trust from the public. Then these things collapse again.

Same thing with e-tolls. It’s just a rehashing of this attitude that if we just legislate something, it’ll fall into place.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Wayne, speaking of e-tolls, surely the e-toll saga taught us important lessons around how costly this becomes for South Africans because, at the end of the day, the taxpayer foots the bill for anything that the government needs to pay for.

If we’re looking at this implementation – again, as you said, nobody’s going against the implementation of Aarto; it is merely around whether or not the rushed aspects of it have all been considered ahead of rushing the implementation.

How do we avoid making those same mistakes? How do we avoid learning from the past if this is the viewpoint to say ‘Let’s promulgate and figure it out later’?

WAYNE DUVENAGE: What is sad, Jimmy, is that you’re quite right. The government should be learning from its mistakes, but it doesn’t. For some strange reason it forgets; it says basically to itself ‘Look, we’re in charge, we know what we’re doing – that’s [e-tolls] a totally different matter’.

But it’s very similar.

They haven’t done public consultation properly, they haven’t done administration, [getting] all the ducks in a row and compliance processes properly. So unfortunately it’s going to suffer the same fate.

Again, government thinks this is their money. It’s our money that they’re spending, and they need to be cognisant of civil society’s viewpoints.

When we did an engagement, by the way, with stakeholders, it wasn’t just us and a few people. We engaged with fleet owners, with big businesses. We even had the metro police at a summit that we had on this discussion. They agreed with us there are challenges and it wasn’t ready. This was some time ago.

We invited the RTA and RTMC [Road Traffic Management Corporation]. Initially, they agreed to come; the day before they pulled out. This is the type of attitude – head in the sand, ostrich mentality. ‘No, we don’t need any feedback from civil society.’

Well then don’t [come], but then suffer the consequences of the system failing – and ask yourself why you don’t have the backing of society? It’s precisely this arrogant approach that they take.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Speaking of consequences, Wayne, I want to take a look at the potential impact that this implementation would have on consumers. As it currently stands, we know that in some areas like Johannesburg and Pretoria, Aarto has effectively been in effect in some way, shape or form for a very long time.

I want to take a look at the potential impact of going into this with half measures, and what that opens the consumers up for in terms of what they might be liable for, but also what protections they might have if they are wronged – and wronged because of something that was just not implemented properly.

WAYNE DUVENAGE: Look, this is where it’s going to get messy and a lot of anxiety starts to rise and the public isn’t sure of how to deal with things.

This is where RTIA has to be very, very clear on its website. For instance, if you have an inquiry or if you want to redirect this fine, or it’s not yours because it’s a totally different vehicle in another part of the country, and someone’s cloned your number plate, they have to have all of those processes in place.

We will do our best, as will others, to enlighten and empower the citizens with a knowledge of their rights on this. That’s what’s going to happen. The scheme will collapse under its own weight and they’re going to have to go back to the drawing board.

But here is, for instance, one thing that you need to know as a family owner and certainly in businesses. That is that a lot of businesses say ‘Look, when we get the fine, we pay it and then we deal with the individual in our company who transgressed.’

Let’s say you are a driver in a company that has a fleet of vehicles. Well, you can’t do that anymore as a business.

For instance, if you have bought your daughter a vehicle or if you have cars in your name – if you don’t redirect those funds to the person who has transgressed, you might pay the fine but there are demerit points that come to you as the vehicle owner.

So you now need to not just say ‘Okay, I’ll pay the fine’.

You need to redirect, in the system, that fine to the actual driver so that they pick up the demerit points on their licence and not you.

This applies to businesses and if the businesses don’t do that, they will rack up the points and be blocked from licensing their vehicles or their fleets across the country. These are the practicalities that people aren’t aware of yet.

Now that only kicks in when the demerit points system kicks in, by the way. But you’ve got to get into the habit of doing that now rather than wait for the last moment to do so.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Wayne, do we have any indication on when the full system would kick into effect with the demerit system or structure?

WAYNE DUVENAGE: Look, you have to have all municipalities on board before you can put that in.

They’ve got the first 62 on board, or say they have. We don’t believe they have. They are a long way off from getting all of them.

Well, I’ve got a feeling that this is not going to get 257, all municipalities, on board before they realise how serious the problems are.

I don’t think that the demerit points system is going to be in place for the next two years, minimum.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Well, until then consumers are going to be caught in a weird sort of limbo, not understanding what parts of the Aarto legislation apply, what parts do not and, most importantly, how it is that we navigate that.

We’ll see how this shapes up. We’ll keep an eye on it and bring you all of the latest from that of course. For now we’ll leave the conversation on that note.

The Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuse’s chief executive officer, Wayne Duvenage, joined us to take a look at the implementation and rollout of Aarto and what we make of it.