We’re still fine: Aarto hits another roadblock

The RTIA said in October that it was ready to roll out the contentious traffic fine management system in December, but it was postponed a month later to 1 July 2026. Now, a report claims the agency is feeling the effects of alleged lavish spending and needs private help to make Aarto happen. Outsourcing the project to the private sector via tender, according to theSunday Times, could cost an additional R1.2bn.

This, after it has already allegedly cost taxpayers R2bn since 2014, The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) warned this may be a “potentially corrupt, deliberate money-making scheme”. “This ‘project’ has all the hallmarks of a potentially corrupt, deliberate money-making scheme. It is nothing short of a public-private partnership that involves revenue sharing of funds intended for the state.

The organisation has denied that the tender was out to take over their core functions and responsibilities. “The core functions of adjudications, revenue collection, and communications will be undertaken by internal management structures. The functions being outsourced are the operational and system development functions, which will require a lot of capital to implement,” said spokesperson Emmanuel Tshehla. Tshehla also said the contractor’s remuneration would be performance based “and will not be necessarily linked to the number or value of fines issued.”