The Road Traffic Infringement Agency has incurred a substantial debt to the South African Post Office to deliver payment demands for invalid fines, the Sunday Times reports.
Citing two sources, the paper reported that the agency had to forfeit the income, causing cashflow problems.
A spokesperson for the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) confirmed it was investigating an incident where infringement notices were sent late. It did not comment on whether it faced a cash crunch.
The Post Office’s business rescue practitioners said the RTIA remained in good standing and was within its credit limits.
The RTIA is responsible for delivering fines issued under the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act.
Aarto is currently in effect in the Johannesburg and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities, and is set to roll out nationally on 1 July 2024 after being declared constitutional and lawful by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
Previously, traffic fines were handled under the Criminal Procedure Act.
Under Aarto, motorists receive demerit points in addition to traffic fines for infringements.
Demerit points are applied once a fine is paid, an enforcement order is issued, or a person charged with a criminal traffic offence is convicted.
Learner drivers can only accumulate up to six points before their licences are suspended for three months.
Fully licensed drivers are given fifteen points grace before their driving permit is suspended.
The most demerits a driver can accumulate through a single offence is six points.
These are typically criminal offences and include not being licensed to drive the class of vehicle, driving under the influence of alcohol, and exceeding the speed limit by more than 40km/h.
Just one of these serious violations will cause a learner driver’s licence to be suspended.
Learner drivers receive five demerits for driving without a fully licensed driver, bringing them very close to their suspension threshold.
Demerit points automatically expire at a rate of one every three months.
While a motorist’s licence is suspended, they may not apply for a different licence, professional driving permit, motor vehicle licence disc, operator card, or any other permit.
If their licence is suspended three times, their licence card or learner’s licence is cancelled.
The RTIA will offer a rehabilitation programme for motorists with a cancelled licence.
Those who have accumulated four or more demerits and want their points reduced faster can also attend the programme.
Each driver can only attend a rehabilitation programme once per year.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) fought Aarto all the way to the Constitutional Court.
Although Outa said it would abide by Zondo’s ruling, it maintained that the system would fail in its aim to reduce the carnage on South Africa’s roads.
Outa executive director Stefanie Fick said the Aarto Amendment Act introduced tedious and expensive procedures with higher penalties rather than visible policing and proper enforcement.
Fick said if the RTIA couldn’t issue fines correctly in Johannesburg and Pretoria, Aarto would be a mess when rolled out nationwide.
“Merely legislating policy doesn’t make it rational or workable. Governments often suffer from the false belief that if the laws and regulations are in place, the people will simply comply,” said Fick.
“Irrational and or impractical laws and a lack of transparency results in pushback from society, making systems ungovernable,” she continued.
“The sad reality is that government begins to suffer from a crisis of legitimacy when it cannot exercise its power over people by effectively enforcing its legislation and policies.”
The South African Post Office was placed in business rescue last year to stave off full liquidation and pave the way for a R2.4 billion bailout allocated by National Treasury.
The Post Office’s financial situation has deteriorated significantly in recent years, and it has struggled to pay its debts and salaries.
This included failing to pay staff’s medical aid and pension fund contributions despite deducting them from salaries.
Its business rescue plan included substantially reducing its 11,083-strong workforce to cut its annual wage bill by around R1.2 billion.
Unions protested the retrenchments, but they have gone ahead after the Post Office failed to secure funding through the Temporary Employer / Employee Relief Scheme.
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration (CCMA) ruled that the funding would merely delay the inevitable.
Workers started receiving their severance packages earlier this month. The second and third tranches of severance packages will be paid in September 2024 and November 2024.
Source
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