Road Traffic Infringement Agency AARTO Presentation Thursday , 28 November 2013

1. Road Traffic Infringement Agency AARTO Presentation Thursday, 28 November 2013 Mr. Thabo Tsholetsane, Chief Operations Officer

2. Contents • Objectives • CPA and AARTO • Implementation Strategy • AARTO Roll-Out Requirements • AARTO Process • The Points Demerit System • Strategic Partnerships • Progress: Provincial Visits and Independent Assessment • Legislative Amendments • Financial Model

3. Objectives • Authorities are using different systems for law enforcement. • Offenders from other jurisdictions get away with traffic crimes. No follow ups are made. • Traffic crimes not a priority at courts. • No real punitive measures to deter infringers. • Current adjudication of road traffic offences addressed under the Criminal Justice System. • The current system is inadequate and does not prioritise traffic offences. • AARTO forges an efficient and effective link between enforcement and adjudication of road traffic violations.

4. Objectives The AARTO categorises violations into: • Offences to be treated under the Criminal Procedure Act 1977 (Act No. 51 of 1977) • Infringements(adjudicated under AARTO Act 1998 (Act No. 46 of 1998

5. Objectives Objectives of the Act are to: • encourage voluntary compliance to road traffic laws • encourage payment of penalties • establish procedure for effective and expeditious adjudication of road traffic infringements • alleviate the burden on court The AARTO further seeks to: • change driver/operator behaviour and • inculcating a new habit of voluntary compliance to road traffic laws! • Penalise habitual infringers through suspension of driving license/operator cards

6. Objectives • penalise infringers through the allocation of demerit points • reward good behaviour through the reduction of demerit points • establish an Agency to support law enforcement and judicial authorities • strengthen co-operation between prosecuting and law enforcement authorities

7. Objectives • The implementation will motivate law enforcement officers & abiding citizens • Introduce efficiencies and free courts to deal with more serious crimes • It seeks to change the behaviour of motorists by linking duties and responsibilities with benefits • It provides options that can be exercised by the infringer

8. Criminal Procedure Act and AARTO Act

9. Implementation Strategy • Implement the AARTO on a pilot phase (GP 2008) • Proclaim the implementation in restricted jurisdictions (TMPD & JMPD 2010) • Test the applicability systems, processes and procedures • Continuous stakeholder engagement • Identify deficiencies • Implement interventions to address weakness • Prepare AARTO Confirmatory Summit • Set on a national rollout

10. Roll-Out Requirements: Issuing Authorities • Service Level Agreements (SLAs) – to be part of Regs. • Equipment acquisition and installation • Network Connectivity • Local Contravention Management System (LCMS) • AARTO Stationery • Administrative tasks on eNaTIS (Back Office) • AARTO Training • Provincial AARTO Task Teams

11. The AARTO Process Commence with a traffic violation followed by an infringement notice in an form of: AARTO01 AARTO 02 AARTO 03, 3B AARTO31 AARTO 32 & 33 (Offences).

12. The AARTO Process • The infringer has five options available • Pay a discounted fee within 32 days, representation, driver nomination, elect to pay in instalment and elect to be tried in court • Imposing of strict timeframes for the exercise of these options • Provides for automatic discounts on the payment of fines within the first phase • Emphasises responsibility for motorists’ actions • Encourage voluntary compliance of road traffic laws

13. The AARTO Process

14. The AARTO Process

15. The AARTO Process: “To be repealed”

16. The AARTO Process

17. AARTO Process Tried in court Issuing Authorities/ RTMC Enforcement Arrest driver Summonses Capturing AARTO website Transfer NCR Infringement Notice Post Office Bank ATM Bank transfer Easy Pay points Internet Other AARTO Bank account Financial Management Applications: Pay instalments Nominate driver Representations Elect court route RTIA Courtesy letters Enforcement orders Warrants Notices Infringer Representation Officers Sheriffs

18. The Points Demerit System • Customised for South African environment and bench-marked on international practice • becomes the equaliser between rich and poor • can easily identify most serious and habitual infringers • Provides objective base for measuring compliance • All drivers will start at zero (0) points upon implementation. • Points are accumulated over a period of time and commission of infringements

19. The Points Demerit System Demerit points are allocated to infringers as follows: • Payment of penalty for the infringement • If found guilty in court • On issuing of Enforcement Order • Points allocated to whoever committed infringement • Proxies are not held liable for infringements committed by drivers • The current threshold is 12 points (under consideration).

20. The Points Demerit System General • In the case of 2 or more infringements in the same case, points will only be allocated for the infringement with the highest point value • In applicable cases when driver pays the penalty, points will automatically be allocated to operator (and infringement notice will be generated and posted) • Drivers of operator vehicles will not get points for operator charges. • Schedule 3 contains all the charges, points and applicable amounts

21. The Points Demerit System • Upon PDS implementation – payment of fines on behalf of drivers must be with their consent • Driver’s permission must be sought to access their demerit status • Suspended licences and operator cards will impact on operations • Owners must keep an accurate record of drivers and/or persons in control of vehicles • Will result in more efficient business operations (asset protection)

22. The Points Demerit System • PDS will assist in identifying and penalising habitual offenders • PDS will positively contribute towards increased road safety and associated targets • Will impact financing & insurance of vehicles

23. The Points Demerit System • The NCR will maintain the record of the history. • Upon reaching the threshold, the infringer will be notified accordingly. • Points will diminish every three months by 1 point. • Once the threshold has been exceeded, the suspension kicks in and the driver must hand in his/her driving licence or PrDP to the nearest Issuing Authority. • It is an offence to drive with a suspended licence.

24. Strategic Partnerships • Provincial and Local IAs • Government Departments • Businesses • SALGA, NPA, SAPS • Organized Labour • Social formations (NGOs, CBOs) • Spiritual Organisations • Banks, insurance companies, fleet companies • Bus & taxi operators, etc

25. Progress: First Round of Provincial Visits Prior to the establishment of the Road Traffic Infringement Agency, AARTO engagements with IAs were done by the Road Traffic Management Corporation. Upon operationalization of the RTIA, IAs were not sure which agency was responsible for AARTO including issues like SLAs, SOPs and others RTIA started by engaging all relevant stakeholders to assess the state of readiness and challenges IAs might have in preparing for national roll-out.

26. Progress: First Round of Provincial Visits • The table below outlines all the provinces that were visited, further indicating the dates of such engagements and follow-up meetings where applicable:

27. Progress: First Round of Provincial Visits In the table above, follow-up meetings were proposed with three provinces where municipal and/or metro police departments were not represented during the first engagement. During these engagements with provinces, it was resolved that the RTIA will arrange AARTO National Task Team meetings leading to the AARTO Summit. The AARTO Summit was later collapsed into the National Road Safety Summit held on the 04 & 05 October 2013 as per directive of the Minister of Transport. A serious concern was raised regarding further engagements with municipal managers and chief financial officers

28. Progress: First Round of Provincial Visits RTIA further had an engagement with SALGA on 23 July 2013 to ensure full understanding of the process and how it will affect municipalities. However, SALGA indicated they will join the RTIA as part of the delegation to provinces during these engagements with municipal managers and chief financial officers. RTIA coordinated two national task team meetings held in Gauteng Province on 25 July and 17 October 2013 and further meetings to take place. Second round of engagements with IAs will commence soon

29. Progress: Independent Assessment RTIA appointed a service provider during June 2013 to perform comprehensive assessment of NCR, RTIA, SAPO, IA’s and LCMS. The service provider commenced with the required assessment of the Agency, the South African Post Office (SAPO) and the readiness assessments of provincial and some municipal issuing authorities; as well as local contravention management systems.

30. Progress: Independent Assessment Towards the end of September 2013 assessment of the provincial and some identified municipal issuing authorities in the following 6 provinces were completed : • Gauteng; • Mpumalanga; • Free State; • Northern Cape; • North West; • Limpopo; and • Eastern Cape. • Two outstanding provinces are : KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

31. Progress: Legislative Amendment • AARTO Amendment Bill: February 2013 (Long version) • Minor/Major Infringements • Traffic Rehabilitation Schools • Repealing Sect 21 • Electronic Service of documents • AARTO Amendment Bill: June 2013 (Short version) • Removing registered mail requirement • Repealing Sect 21 • Changing from Agency to Authority • Withholding revenue for non-compliance

32. Progress: Legislative Amendment AARTO Regulations Amendment: Promulgation (14 November 2013 • Regulations address some inefficiencies experienced during the pilot. The following are the key aspects covered by the amendment: • Regulation 2, replacement of RTMC with the Agency for the purposes of performing administrative functions, • Regulation 14 (13), introduction of mandatory transfers of monies due to RTIA within stipulated period. This regulation is retrospective from July 2008 and is intended to get all the authorities around the country who collected AARTO penalties over the past few years (from 2008) to transfer the monies collected to the AARTO national bank account. • IAs or Collecting agents do not require SLA to transfer penalties into AARTO national bank account

33. Progress: Legislative Amendment AARTO Regulations Amendment: Promulgation (14 November 2013 • Regulation 25A, appointment of Government Printing Works (GPW) as sole provider for AARTO stationery, • Schedule 3, realignment of certain charge codes and charge items relating to overload infringements. These amendments will be incorporated onto the NCR. • Schedule 4, replacement of operator demerit points with Issuing Authority Codes. Many IA’s do not know what their IA codes are and this schedule should assist to resolve this problem.

34. Progress: Legislative Amendments AARTO Regulations Amendment: Public Comments (01 November 2013) • Based on the short version of the Bill The agency will be embarking on comprehensive legislative amendment before the end of the financial year (2013/14) and further announcements will be communicated to all IAs

35. Financial Model • All AARTO payments must be verified, controlled and captured directly on the NCR • The NCR records the monies due to each institution involved in the AARTO process and the apportionment formula as provided (prior and post 32 days) • All payments to be made into national AARTO bank account • The agency will conduct other financial management functions as outlined in the model including disbursements • Payments at courts determined by the magistrates must be followed by receipts

36. Conclusion Thank You