The Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) informed road users on Wednesday that the provisions under the Administrative Adjudication of the Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act are still enforceable until the Constitutional Court makes a judgment on the expected appeal.

Last week, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled in favour of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), which challenged the constitutional validity of the Aarto and the Aarto Amendment Act.

Outa wanted the High Court to declare both the main Act and the Amendment Act unconstitutional.

Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula has vowed to appeal the Pretoria High Court judgment and the RTIA board have also decided to join the Minister’s appeal. 

The RTIA explained that Aarto is a national road safety intervention designed to change the behaviour of road users to curb the high number of fatalities that occur on the country’s roads.

RTIA estimated that about 14 000 road users die on national roads each year because of traffic law violations committed by infringers.

Mbalula said Aarto provided an adjudication system for infringements of road rules as determined by the National Road Traffic Act.  

“Therefore, Aarto implementation continues until the judgment on the constitutionality of the Aarto Act has been subjected to all due legal review processes,” RTIA said and reminded road users to take advantage of the Aarto elective options to resolve any Aarto fines.