Top court gives green light to demerit system for driving offences

The Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of the government’s plan to introduce a demerit system for traffic offenders, paving the way for a radical overhaul of the traffic offence system with potential implications for insurance and road freight companies.

The new laws, known as the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act and the Aarto Amendment Act, will replace the current criminal system with an administrative one, in which drivers will lose points for offences and face suspension or cancellation of their licences if they lose too many.

The judgment is a victory for the government, which has been pushing for the implementation of the demerit system for more than two decades.

The government said that the system will improve road safety and reduce road carnage in SA, which has one of the highest rates of road fatalities in the world, with financial implications for insurance, road freight industries and the Road Accident Fund (RAF).

The cost of road crashes to the economy topped R1-trillion over the past seven years, the transport department told a parliamentary committee in April, as they often lead to property damage, workplace productivity loss, medical costs, traffic congestion and other costs.

Transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga welcomed the judgment.

“The Aarto Act is an important cog in our road traffic law enforcement interventions aimed at arresting the carnage on our roads and altering driver behaviour. With this judgment having cleared the path for the implementation of Aarto, we will move with speed to roll out its implementation across the country without delay,” she said.

The court dismissed a challenge by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), which argued the laws infringed on the authority of local and provincial governments.

Writing for a unanimous court, chief justice Raymond Zondo found that the new laws fall within the competence of both national and provincial spheres of government and that they aim to achieve uniformity and standardisation across the country.

“The objective of [the new laws] is to encourage compliance with national and provincial laws relating to road traffic,” Zondo said. “It is obviously appropriate to have a uniform set of road traffic markings and road traffic signs applying throughout the country, as well as standardised procedures for licensing drivers and vehicles.”

Outa expressed disappointment with the judgment, saying that the new system will not improve road safety but will impose undue burdens on motorists, especially those who rely on driving for their livelihoods. “The [newer statutes] with higher penalties, tedious and expensive procedures to be followed by the public and the total lack of prescription on visible policing will have little or no effect on improving road safety,” Outa executive director Stefanie Fick said.

Outa had hoped that the apex court would confirm a high court ruling in 2022 that declared the two traffic statutes invalid because they encroached on local governments’ authority.

The Automobile Association of SA (AA) also issued a statement expressing scepticism about the new laws.

“We stand by our previous views that the Aarto legislation is geared towards revenue collection and not on promoting safer roads,” it said.

Like Outa, the AA argued that the new laws are impractical — as demonstrated in 2008 pilot programmes. “As part of our contention,” the AA said, “we point to the fact that there is no evidence that the Aarto pilot project saved a single life.”

There were no cost orders.

moosat@businesslive.co.za