During this October Transport Month (OTM) 2018, the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) will travel across South Africa to conduct AARTO education and awareness campaigns. With this relatively new legislation, motorist need to know their rights and options as contained in the Administrative Adjudication of the Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO) of 1998. The AARTO Act seeks to level the interaction landscape between the motorists and the Issuing Authorities of road traffic infringement notices.
As part of the initial OTM 2018 activities, the RTIA in partnership with faith-based formations will hold a 3rd anniversary of the National Prayer Day at the Birchwood Conference Centre in Ekurhuleni on 10 October 2018 at 10:00. The event is part of the month-long programme recently launched by the Minister of Transport, Dr Blade Nzimande.
More than 3500 people from various provinces across South Africa are expected to attend the faith-based movement National Prayer Day for Road Safety.
Of great concern to the RTIA are the ever-increasing fatalities on our roads due to lawlessness and negligent driver behaviour. As a pro-active move to curb these phenomena, the RTIA continues to intensify its educational and awareness campaigns across country. At the end, we strive towards ensuring that motorists obey the rules of the road and our roads are safer for all road users, including pedestrians.
The RTIA OTM 2018 rollout programme includes partnership with the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport where AARTO Mobile offices will be deployed at various Driver Licencing and Testing Centres during this period. Core to the AARTO Mobile office deployments is community education on AARTO – focusing on the rights and options of the motorists as stipulated in the AARTO Act.
The RTIA regards the faith-based movement as another site of struggle to combat lawlessness on our roads. Through the partnership with community-based organisations, the transport sector will be able to deepen its messages on road safety. An ongoing integrated effort with mass based organisation, we can make a successful contribution to the goals of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety to half road fatalities by 2020.
The RTIA Registrar, Japh Chuwe, says “The partnership with the faith-based movement engages communities on road safety matters and educates them about their roles and responsibilities as stated in the AARTO Act. The more we educate our communities about the impact road fatalities have on the moral fibre our society, the higher the levels of compliance with traffic laws we shall experience on our roads. The death of bread winners and other economically active community members due to road crashes, the more their dependents are likely to be victims of social ills”.
Through the Department of Transport, the RTIA is currently lobbying government to declare 01 October an Annual National Prayer Day for Road Safety. The national call for a special day of focussed messaging is evidenced by the 1 175 429 signatures collected from all walks of life in petition books as support for the call to declare a National Prayer and Awareness Day for Road Safety.”
“All our efforts this OTM 2018 seek to ensure that we realise the intensions of the National Road Safety Strategy. We will do all possible to galvanise our communities to participate in road safety initiatives to reduce fatalities on our road. Through the envisaged national AARTO rollout, it is our firm view that we will have a compliant nation towards total eradication of deaths on our roads,” concluded Chuwe.
The rest of the RTIA OTM 2018 programme is as follows:
• 12 October 2018 – Randburg DLTC
• 16-17 October 2018 – Port Alfred
• 19 October 2018 – Watloo DLTC
• 23-24 October 2018 – Port St Johns
• 26 October 2018 – Maponya Mall
• 30-31 October 2018 – Queenstown
The national AARTO public education and community awareness programme is designed to reach all nine provinces before March 2019.
