Constitutional Court Declares Aarto Act Constitutional, Delivering Blow to Outa’s Legal Challenge

• The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) has been declared constitutional by the Apex court
• The ConCourt ruled in favour of an appeal lodged by former transport minister Fikile Mbalula
• The latest judgement comes after the civil society group Outa had the act declared invalid by the Pretoria High Court in 2022

JOHANNESBURG - The Constitutional Court has delivered a legal blow to the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).

The ConCourt dismissed Outa's application to have the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act declared invalid and unconstitutional.

Aarto Act creates new administration system for traffic offences and fines

According to the Aarto website, the purpose of the act is to move the prosecution of road traffic offences from the Criminal Procedure Act and the courts to an administrative and process-driven scheme.

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Aarto is essentially an administrative system of traffic fines and offences that will be funded almost entirely by traffic fines and the fees raised on them.

Civil society group Outa argued that Aarto removed certain powers from municipalities and redirected that to other organs of the state.

ConCOurt sides with former finance minister Fikile Mbalula

The judgment, which was delivered on Wednesday, 12 July, effectively overturns Outa's Pretoria High Court win in January 2022, which ordered the court to be scrapped entirely.

Then transport minister Fikile Mbalula lodged an appeal with the ConCourt, which Chief Justice Raymond Zondo ruled in favour of. The application was dismissed without cost, The Citizen reported.

SA spends R1.9b on VIP protection police for government officials, civil society groups want unit disbanded

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In another story, Briefly News reported that a civil society group, Outa, has pointed out that the government spends more money protecting ministers than it does protecting citizens.

The organisation revealed that the South African government spent R1.9 billion on the SAPS VIP protection unit in the past financial year to protect themselves. In contrast, the money spent on the SAPS to cover and protect the entire SA population was a mere R2.247 billion.

Outa also pointed out that it seemed like politicians are afraid of ordinary citizens, which may be why they spend so much money on VIP protection police officers, reports BusinessTech.

Source: Briefly News