How fast you can drive without getting fined in South Africa

The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) driving laws offer South African motorists a degree of grace regarding speed limits.

This consists of a tolerance of around 10km/h, which is intended to account for different speedometer calibrations.

However, it does not extend to average speed-over-distance traps.

The tolerance is used to avoid clogging South Africa’s already overburdened legal system with prosecutions of motorists who went only a few kilometres over the speed limit.

As such, South Africans will only be fined when travelling 11km/h or more over the speed limit.

Along with the fine, the Aarto Act, when it’s fully implemented, will allocate demerit points to drivers who break road laws, including speeding.

These demerit points stack, and drivers will have their licenses suspended once they hit a 15-point threshold.

The 10km/h tolerance will also help drivers avoid accumulating these demerit points for only slightly exceeding the speed limit.

Regarding traffic fines after this tolerance, the Aarto speeding infringements are broken into two-kilometre-per-hour brackets, each with an increasingly higher fine and allotment of penalty points.

For instance, while travelling on a highway, going from 11km/h to 12km/h over the speed limit, a motorist will receive one demerit point and a fine of R400.

In the next bracket, 13km/h to 14km/h, the fine increases to R600, while in the following bracket, 15km/h to 16km/h, the demerits increase to two points and the fine rises to R800.

This remains consistent throughout the brackets, with each bracket boasting a R200 higher fine than the former, and the demerit allotment likewise increasing every two to five brackets.

The highest possible fine for speeding is in the 39km/h to 40km/h bracket with R3,200 and the allotment of five demerit points.

Should drivers exceed R40km/h over the speed limit, they’ll be arrested and allotted six demerit points.

You can see a full table of the fines and demerit points below.  

Aarto on the horizon and speed limit changes

The Aarto system is set to roll out nationwide in December 2025, with an initial 69 municipalities prepared to implement the system.

Following this, the country’s remaining municipalities will implement the system by 1 April 2026; however, these rollouts won’t include the demerit point system, which is slated to go live in September 2026.

Along with this system, which is intended to make the roads safer, there was a proposal from the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) to reduce South Africa’s speed limits across the board in February 2022.

However, this proposal was met with staunch opposition, with experts noting that reducing the speed limit will have little impact on the high accident rates.

Groups such as the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) were also opposed to this limit change, as they said the government should address more obvious issues first, such as poor road quality.

Recently, Rob Handfield-Jones, the Driving.co.za managing director, told MyBroadband that there was no evidence that lowering the speed limit would reduce road accidents and fatalities.

Rather, he explained that the government is more concerned about speed limits because they’re an effective revenue generator for the state.

He also noted that other issues, like disregard for other road laws, licence fraud, and intoxicated drivers, are far more relevant.

Whether the Aarto system and its fines and demerits will help address these problems and resolve the carnage plaguing South Africa’s roads remains to be seen.