The Automobile Association on Tuesday welcomed a call by Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele to shorten the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences’ (AARTO) deadline to March next year but only if the system was working properly.

AARTO is being piloted in Johannesburg and Pretoria but the demerit system is not yet in effect.

AARTO was only expected to go national in November next year but Ndebele said he wanted the system in place much sooner.

“It was always dependent on the system being able to work properly, and one would assume that if the minister has given a date, March next year, that the system is ready to go live,” said the AA’s Gary Ronald.