Sadly, it’s not often that DieselDrive reports on matters relating to road safety and good driving practices in general, but at this time of year, when our roads generally get busier and the accident figures and death tolls rise higher than usual, it’s impossible to not think about our behaviour behind the steering wheel. I have in recent months witnessed countless accidents and have read numerous articles and news features about atrocious road manners, which quite obviously is a major concern.
As a motoring journalist I spend a lot of time on the road, sometimes on glorious open roads where I sometimes let rip to experience a car’s performance credentials, but more often in towns and cities where it’s not only nearly impossible, but downright foolish to drive recklessly. I’ve adopted several rules for my own driving behaviour and thus far it’s paid dividends. There are many of them, of course, but two important personal rules include never using my mobile phone when driving (not as easy as it sounds) and turning the proverbial other cheek in traffic – I’d rather give the aggressive, arrogant and selfish idiot trying to force me into a slower lane, for example, a gap and move on than engage in dangerous games.
'Tis the season to be reckless...
Unfortunately, though, my biggest hindrance to being a 100% traffic law-abiding citizen has always been sticking to the speed limit, especially when I’m faced with a glorious piece of driving road, and especially when there’s no-one else around. I’m quite happy to stick to the limit in the city, for some reason, but as it often happens in today’s magnificent cars, you only notice the speed you’re travelling when it’s too late. I’ve never been convinced of government’s “speed kills” marketing campaign and instead focus my attention on driver training – if you know how to handle your car under pressure, you’ll be able to avoid or at least reduced the impact of the accident in time. I won’t digress on this much further at this point, but do look out for more regular features on this subject in the near future. The bottom line remains that you simply shouldn’t speed, and that, dear friends, is at the top of my list of new years’ resolutions.
That said, I’m very proud to say that I’ve not received a single speeding fine in over two years… until last week, that is, when I received not one, but three fines in the mail. Upon investigating them – they’re now called “Infringement Notices” – I recalled driving the vehicle shown in the photographs (a test car) and taking a trip on the roads indicated, but was fascinated that three different cameras – which I obviously didn’t see on my way – snapped me within ten minutes of each other. It was obviously a good day out for the JMPD. With the formal implementation of AARTO having taken years to get right and the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) being notorious for ripping people off, I was naturally a bit suspicious of the three fines.
Time to go make some extra cash!
As I readied myself to pay the fines (as a good yet guilty as charged citizen should do), I suddenly remembered (vaguely, I might add) a few things I’ve read on the website for the Justice Project South Africa. In case you’re not familiar with them, follow the link above. Personally, I applaud the organisation for standing up for all road users and making the JMPD – and others, by the way – sweat a bit for their rampant misuse of the law in order to line their pockets. You’ll read fascinating stuff on their site and I urge you to spend some time there, as I personally believe everything they tell you about the JMPD and other metro police departments.
The bit I recalled was that, according to AARTO, an Infringement Notice has to be served within forty (40) days of the alleged infringement taking place. The three notices I received was obviously unlawful as the infringement took place on June 16th this year, quite obviously more than 40 days later. But then I noticed something else on the Justice Project’s sister website, www.aarto.co.za, which stated that AARTO 03 Infringement Notices from the JMPD (and TMPD) have been unlawfully served. This, dear friends, is what forced me to write this article, for low and behold, in my hands were three (already unlawful) AARTO 03 Infringement Notices. According to the site, JMPD has been doing this since June last year, in the process violating Section 30 of the AARTO Amendment Act – this, according to the site, equates to approximately 8 026 480 physical infringement notices.
“In accordance with Section 30(1) of the AARTO Amendment Act 22 of 1999, ‘any document required to be served on an infringer in terms of this Act, must be served on the infringer personally or sent by registered mail to his or her last known address’. Yet despite this provision being firmly in place and not once having been amended, since 1 June 2010, the JMPD and specifically their contractors (TMT Services) have been sending out AARTO 03 infringement notices by standard permit mail (with no registration whatsoever) to alleged infringers,” says Howard Dembovsky of the Justice Project South Africa. “The decision was apparently taken by a senior person in the JMPD and, whilst it has been said by that very same person that an amendment to the Act is being sought, the fact of the matter is that no such amendment has been tabled before parliament as yet,” he adds. “In fact, Government Gazette 34208 of 15 April 2011, which called for public comment on the proposed amendments to the AARTO regulations does not diminish the requirement for service via registered mail, but actually further reinforces it”.
Prior to 1 June 2010, the JMPD complied with this provision, but then a decision was taken by them to save R15 per postage item in dispatching these infringement notices. “The TMPD/RTMC joined in with this practice in around August/September 2010 but this quickly came to an end, says Howard. “The fact that this provision exists with respect to document service therefore makes the dispatch of these notices via standard surface mail unlawful and deems them as un-served, due to the fact that no date of service can ever be established. Similarly, the discount period and all other processes in terms of the Act cannot be established and therefore cannot become effective. It is for this reason, amongst others, that the JMPD have not proceeded beyond the first process in the AARTO system – that of the issue of an infringement notice. And they cannot do so, even if they wanted to comply with the rest of the processes in the AARTO Act.”
An example of what an AARTO 03 Infringement Notice looks like
When it became apparent what was happening, Justice Project South Africa (JPSA) immediately tried to address this matter in July 2010 by engaging with the JMPD’s electronic enforcement department. “However, after these engagements amounted to nothing more than rhetoric, the matter was escalated to the RTIA (Road Traffic Enforcement Agency) on 16 August 2010. On 2 September 2010, the RTIA, in a letter dated 1 September 2010 stated, amongst other things the following: ‘Do take note that through engagements with the other stakeholders, the Corporation and RTIA has made a strong recommendation to the Issuing Authority to cancel invalid notices’.”
The JMPD’s reaction to these engagements and recommendations has been to blindly ignore them and not only leave these unlawful notices in force, but to continue sending out new infringement notices via standard surface mail. As at this very moment, alleged infringers continue to receive AARTO 03 infringement notices via standard surface mail. “Despite undertakings given by the acting registrar of the RTIA to write a letter to the JMPD instructing them to cease this practice, this has not happened and the JMPD continues serving these notices unlawfully,” says Howard. “We originally intended to take the matter to the High Court and embarked on an exercise to gain a high number of affected parties into a combined action to address the matter,” he tells. “This met with a very slow take up by members of the public who had received these unlawful infringement notices and when we eventually felt that we had sufficient examples of prejudice, we gave instruction to our attorneys to proceed with litigation”.
Then, reality bit and it bit hard! “We were told that we would have to put up between R500 000 and R1 million security for costs in order to bring the action to court. Since we never had and probably won’t ever have anywhere near that kind of money, we had to rethink our strategy,” he tells. “On 16 June 2011, a formal and detailed complaint was registered with the office of the Public Protector by Justice Project South Africa. The matter is receiving attention and we have received a case reference of 408832/11 from that office. It is now up to the office of the Public Protector to make a determination as to the maladministration and arrogant lawlessness that has been perpetrated by the JMPD,” he concludes.
This doesn’t mean you can simply ignore the fines, however – in fact, the Justice Project South Africa urges you not to ignore them. “Let’s just remember that those who have had unlawful AARTO 03 infringement notices issued against them would never had this happen if they did not get caught on camera speeding in the first place,” says Howard. Point taken… What would the next step be, then?
“You can and should complete an AARTO 08 representation form with respect to each and every infringement notice that you have received,” he says. “If this is done properly, it will result in the cancellation of any AARTO 03 infringement notice that was unlawfully or indeed not served. You can either do this yourself, or we can provide you with an AARTO 08 representation form with the correct representation wording pre-loaded in it”. This is an invaluable service that will cost you a measly R150 per infringement notice – and no, this is not just a way for the JPSA to make money a la JMPD. It is quite possibly more affordable than paying a criminal lawyer for his or her services.
“We have taken this matter up because right is right and wrong is wrong,” says Howard. “Law enforcement authorities and motorists alike must obey the law and this is not a negotiable requirement. Bear in mind that, if you want this nonsensical camera speed enforcement from the bushes to come to an end, the best way to achieve that is to stop making traffic law enforcement authorities and their so-called “contractors” obscenely rich by not adhering to the speed limit”.
For more information on the Justice Project South Africa, please visit http://www.jp-sa.org. Invaluable information is also to be found at their AARTO website listed above. Should you want to make use of the organisation’s skills with regards to AARTO 08 representation forms, please click here.
- Christo Valentyn
