JP Smith: Cape Town validated after Aarto declared unconstitutional

The City of Cape Town is validated in their concerns following the Pretoria High Court declaring the Aarto legislation as unconstitutional and invalid, the City’s Mayco Member for Safety and Security JP Smith said.

Smith says the City has consistently expressed their concerns around Aarto – which took more than two decades to implement – revolving around two main points.

“The fact that it was in conflict with the local government mandate around traffic enforcement,” Smith said.

And “around its functionality and that it would be ineffective in curbing road deaths,” he continued.

As a result, the ruling by Judge Basson on Thursday validated the City’s concerns when it ruled AARTO legislation ‘unlawfully intrudes upon the executive and legislative competency of local and provincial governments,’ according to Smith.

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), who brought the matter to court in October 2021, shared the views of Cape Town’s administration around the legislation’s ineffectiveness in dealing with road deaths, IOL previously reported.

“Outa believes that Aarto in its current format does nothing to improve road safety, nor does it reduce the scourge of road fatalities in South Africa,” Outa’s Advocate Stefanie Fick was quoted as saying after the Court’s ruling.

Smith, on behalf of the City’s administration, believes there should be greater consequences to deal with lawlessness on South Africa’s roads, but Aarto was not the solution.

The City of Cape Town advocates for (as a starting point):

• Speedier prosecutions for serious driving offences
• More significant sentences
• Permanent impoundments of vehicles used in serious driving offences

-IOL

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