Satawu is to launch a campaign to stop AARTO in its current form. If necessary Satawu will use its muscle to bring all professional passenger and freight road transport services to a halt.

For over a year Satawu has been trying to have a serious engagement with the Minister of Transport on AARTO. Despite promises of meetings, and commitments to dealing with issues raised by Satawu, the Minister has delivered nothing and continues to dodge the union. Satawu has now had enough, and will be mobilizing against the implementation of AARTO.

While Satawu has always welcomed any initiative to bring order and safety to our roads, AARTO represents a top-down punitive approach which has not been properly consulted, and which will impact negatively on South Africa's 791,000 professional drivers.

AARTO, through the points system, will penalize professional drivers for vehicle violations over which the driver has no control. For example, an unroadworthy or overloaded vehicle will invite negative points to the driver's record.

In addition, the number of negative points allocated before a driver's license is suspended is ridiculously small. Despite every good intention of not committing traffic violations, a worker who's job it is to drive, will be exposed in a very short space of time to license suspension or cancellation. This is particularly in a context where traffic authorities have the habit of deliberately "entrapping" drivers for reasons of earning revenue rather than for reasons of truly introducing road safety.

In this way AARTO threatens the livelihoods of almost a million workers in all sectors in South Africa. Over 50,000 of them are members of Satawu. Others are spread through every single sector. Satawu will therefore be calling on Cosatu and affiliates to support the campaign.

Satawu demands that the Minister:

• Enters into negotiations with Satawu over the future of AARTO

• Urgently puts in place a comprehensive road safety plan which includes addressing the appalling state of our roads as well as the counter-productive strategies of the traffic authorities

Statement issued Zenzo Mahlangu, SATAWU General Secretary, September 22 2010

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