AARTO Bill [B38B-2015]: final mandates

NCOP Economic and Business Development

30 October 2018
Chairperson: Mr M Rayi (ANC, Eastern Cape)
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Meeting Summary

Delegates presented their respective final mandates on the Bill to the Committee. The Eastern Cape Province, the Free State Province, the KwaZulu-Natal Province, the Limpopo Province, the Mpumalanga Province and the Northern Cape Province voted in favour of the Bill. The Western Cape Province was not in support of the Bill. The Committee had not received final mandates on the Bill from the North West and Gauteng. There were thus six provinces in favour of the Bill and one against.

The Committee adopted the Bill in its entirety. The Committee report on the Bill was also approved after the parliamentary legal advisor made minor technical corrections to it.

The DA placed it on record that it was not in favour of the Bill for a number of reasons and cited reasons for this. This included the view that the legislation would not pass judicial scrutiny as it was not in line with sections 34 and 35 of the constitution. The ANC majority pointed out that the Committee’s meeting was not the forum for political parties to make political statements. The meeting was about consideration of Provincial Final Mandates on the Bill.

The Chairperson spoke to the process around the Competition Amendment Bill. The Committee’s Amended Fourth Term Programme was adopted unamended.

 

Meeting report

Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Amendment Bill: Final Mandates
Eastern Cape Province

Ms T Xhanti (ANC), Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Transport, Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, stated that the Eastern Cape Province voted in favour of Bill.

Free State Province
Mr E Makue (ANC, Gauteng), in the absence of a delegate from the Province, said that the Free State Province voted in favour of the Bill.

KwaZulu-Natal Province
Ms M Dikgale (ANC, Limpopo), in the absence of a delegate from KwaZulu-Natal Province, stated that the Province voted in favour of the Bill.

Limpopo Province 
Ms Dikgale said that the Province had voted in favour of the Bill.

Mpumalanga Province
In the absence of a delegate from the Province, Ms Dikgale stated that the Province voted in favour of the Bill.

Northern Cape Province
Mr W Faber (DA, Northern Cape) said that the Province voted in favour of the Bill.

Western Cape Province
In the absence of a delegate from the Province, Mr Faber stated that the Province was not in support of the Bill.

The Committee had not received Final Mandates on the Bill from the North West and Gauteng.

Voting on Bill

The Chairperson pointed out that there were six provinces in favour of the Bill and one against. Final Mandates had not been received from the North West and Gauteng. The next step was for the Committee to vote on the Bill. He took the Committee through the Bill clause by clause and asked members to vote on each. The Committee supported each clause as well as the Bill in its entirety.

Committee Report on Bill
The Chairperson read out the Report of the Committee on the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Amendment Bill [B38D-2018], a section 76 Bill. The Report essentially stated that the Committee agreed to the Bill with amendments.

Ms Noluthanda Mpikashe, Parliamentary Law Adviser, identified minor technical corrections which needed to be made to the Committee’s Report and made the corrections where needed.

The Committee agreed to the Report as corrected.

Mr Faber stated that he wished to place the minority view of the DA on the Bill on record. The DA did not support the Bill for a number of reasons. To start with, the DA felt that the legislation would not pass judicial scrutiny as it was not in line with sections 34 and 35 of the constitution. The DA was not convinced that the AARTO in its final draft would effectively change current bad road behaviour. Additionally, the design of merit points only focused on the negative. A further concern was that municipalities would be negatively affected as their income streams from traffic offences would now be diverted to provinces. He pointed out that the adversarial system that underlined SA’s civil and criminal justice system provided that a person who alleges had to prove his/her allegation and it was not required of the accused to prove his/her innocence. Section 20 of the principal act seemed to move away from this provision. To date no rand value could be placed on the financial impact that the AARTO had on the revenue streams of the two pilot projects that had been undertaken nor could a value be placed on the cost to government for full implementation. The cost of which was expected to be astronomical.

Mr B Nthebe (ANC, North West) responded that the meeting was not the forum for political parties to make political statements. The Northern Cape Province which Mr Faber represented had after all voted in favour of the Bill in its Final Mandate.

Mr E Makue (ANC, Gauteng) added that political parties at public hearings had the opportunity to make their feelings known over a particular piece of legislation. He found it distressing that the Western Cape Province did not support the Bill and had not given any motivations as to why not.

The Chairperson said that the process on the Bill from the Committee’s side was complete. He did note that provinces’ views on the Bill were all that mattered. It was a section 76 bill after all.

Committee Minutes
Two sets of minutes: one for the morning and one for an afternoon session for 9 October 2018 were adopted unamended.

Amended Fourth Term Committee Programme
The Chairperson stated that the Committee had been on oversight from 16-19 October 2018. The Competition Amendment Bill had been advertised and the closing date for comment was on 7 November 2018. Public hearings on the Competition Amendment Bill were planned for 13 November 2018. The Committee had after obtaining permission from the Chairperson of Committees managed to get 15 and 16 November 2018 also to be set aside for public hearings on the Bill. The Committee had also requested that a Committee Day be set aside for a meeting with the Economic Development Department (EDD) for them to respond to comments made on the Bill. Deliberations on the Bill by the Committee would take place on 22 November 2018. On 27 November 2018 the Bill would go to the House for consideration and adoption. Constituency period for members was 3-14 December 2018.

Mr Faber, on the constituency period, said that he had heard that the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) would still be sitting for the first two weeks of December 2018. Constituency period would only start in the second week of December 2018.

Mr Nthebe responded that what Mr Faber had heard was untrue. There was however a possibility of parliament’s sitting continuing for an additional day or two. There was no possibility of Parliament continuing for a week or longer.

Mr Makue asked that public hearings be pushed to be completed by 15 November 2018 so that there was no need for the Committee to meet on 16 November 2018.

The Amended Committee Programme was adopted unamended.

The meeting was adjourned.

 

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