{"id":654064,"date":"2026-06-17T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=654064"},"modified":"2026-06-17T08:33:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:33:06","slug":"biggest-change-to-traffic-fines-in-south-africa-in-49-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/654064-biggest-change-to-traffic-fines-in-south-africa-in-49-years.html","title":{"rendered":"Biggest change to traffic fines in South Africa in 49 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If all goes according to plan, South Africa will begin the national rollout of a new dispensation in about two weeks that will fundamentally change the country’s decades-old traffic fine system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside of two municipalities in Gauteng, traffic fines in South Africa have been handled in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) since 1977.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under these laws, drivers get issued with a Section 56 notice when stopped in person or a Section 341 notice for non-present offences, like unmanned speeding camera tickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both cases, offences are considered criminal with an associated financial penalty or, in extreme cases, imprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paying a fine is considered to be an admission of guilt. If a motorist wishes to dispute an offence, they can challenge it in court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, only extremely excessive speeding, reckless driving, or repeated offence notices that go unacknowledged can result in an arrest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drivers convicted of serious offences will have these added to their criminal records, which can limit their access to jobs and many other services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Act, first introduced 28 years ago, aims to move less serious traffic violations from a criminal to an administrative framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AARTO Act divides road law violations into two categories \u2014 infringements and offences. Offences are for more serious violations, such as extremely excessive speeding or driving without a licence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these cases, violations will still be handled in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Act. Therefore, the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” still applies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big change will be in the handling of less serious violations, such as failing to stop at a traffic light or a stop sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the implementation of AARTO, infringements will not be subject to the CPA but to an administrative process overseen by the Road Traffic Infringement Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving licence demerit points <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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JMPD officer scanning a motorist’s licence<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The full implementation of AARTO will also introduce a driving licence point demerit system similar to those applied in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to fines, certain infringements and offences will accrue points. If a driver accumulates more than 15 points, their licence will be suspended for three months for each point above that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest timeline for the phased rollout of AARTO will see the system initially going live in 69 more municipalities from 1 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second phase, AARTO will be expanded to another 144 municipalities. The licence point demerit system’s go-live date is set for a few months thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AARTO system has been in pilot with the licence points demerit system in Tshwane since July 2008 and in Johannesburg since November 2008. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was originally scheduled to roll out in November 2010, but severe administrative shortcomings and legislative delays delayed implementation for nearly 16 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after a legal challenge by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) was struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2023, the transport department failed to roll out the new system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Significant concerns over AARTO feasibility and impact<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Wayne Duvenage, OUTA CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While OUTA accepted the court’s decision, it has continued to warn that the legislation will place a heavy administrative burden on individuals, businesses, and fleet operators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OUTA CEO Wayne Duvenage recently also warned that AARTO had “all the hallmarks of a potentially corrupt, deliberate money-making scheme.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is nothing short of a public-private partnership that involves revenue sharing of funds intended for the state,” Duvenage said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duvenage was specifically speaking in light of the RTIA issuing a tender for a private service provider to support some of the core functions of AARTO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duvenage believes there is potential for system manipulation where private companies stand to benefit from artificially induced inefficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The RTIA makes little money if infringers pay on time, and a lot more when the public misses the fine payment deadlines and must pay a higher penalty,” Duvenage explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OUTA previously also said the latest version of the AARTO regulations was rushed without public participation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OUTA said the last postponement of AARTO’s national rollout in November 2025 should be used to get the legislation right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If government is serious about road safety, it must return to the drawing board \u2014 build a transparent, practical system that supports enforcement, earns public trust, and genuinely saves lives.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No further revisions were made to AARTO since the postponement, meaning OUTA’s concerns remain unaddressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving.co.za managing director Rob Handfield-Jones has also warned that the latest version of AARTO was highly susceptible to legal challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The finalised regulations are a cluttered mess, which could have considerable vulnerability in any court challenge on their merits, let alone the lack of consultation apparent in their finalisation,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Handfield-Jones said the core principles of the Act, which were intended to improve road safety and reduce road fatalities, had been wrecked with legislative tinkering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At this point, they may as well scrap it and just rework the current enforcement system to include proper document service and demerit points, like what is done in the UK.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The charts below from OUTA show the complicated procedures involved in the administrative and criminal processes for fines under AARTO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If all goes according to plan, South Africa will begin the national rollout of a new dispensation in about two weeks that will fundamentally change the country’s decades-old traffic fine system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":505218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[105911,103971,10706,88534,35414,19174,105912,34711,18388,10142],"class_list":["post-654064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-administrative-adjudication-of-road-traffic-offences-aarto-act","tag-criminal-procedure-act","tag-department-of-transport","tag-driving-co-za","tag-organisation-undoing-tax-abuse-outa","tag-road-traffic-infringement-agency-rtia","tag-road-traffic-violations","tag-rob-handfield-jones","tag-traffic-fines","tag-wayne-duvenage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654064"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654331,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654064\/revisions\/654331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}