If you don’t pay speeding fines you run the risk of getting slapped with extra penalties, the suspension of your licence, vehicle impoundment, and in extreme cases, imprisonment.
In South Africa, traffic law infringements are dealt with by the Criminal Procedures Act (CPA) or the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act, depending on where the penalty is issued.
While moderate speeding under both sets of regulations may not be considered the most serious offence, it does carry undesirable consequences should you not pay the fine.
Criminal Procedures Act
In terms of the CPA, minor infringements such as speeding, licence offences, and illegal parking are normally “Section 341/Schedule 3” offences, where there is no actual prosecution and therefore no criminal record to end up in the Criminal Record Centre (CRC), as per Bailey Haynes Incorporate Attorneys.
A Section 341 notice is sent to motorists in the post for violations caught on camera or for traffic tickets issued in the absence of the motorist.
This serves as a first notice before a court summons.
If you fail to pay your speeding fine by the stipulated date, you may be charged late payment fees and be issued a second notice.
After the second notice, one has another 30 days to pay or to contest the fine in writing, before the matter goes to court.
In total, you have approximately three months to pay a Section 341 ticket, however, the periods vary by municipality, said Bailey Haynes.
If you do not attend your court date, a warrant for arrest will be issued, and you will be charged with being in contempt of court.
Should you be charged with contempt of court with a warrant issued for your arrest and you are stopped at a roadblock or pulled over by a traffic officer, you may be arrested and taken to jail and subsequently be required to present yourself to a prosecutor.
The CPA also has what is called a Section 56 Written Notice to Appear in Court, which applies in more serious cases.
Issued to you by a traffic officer, the notice includes a court date when you need to appear before a prosecutor and usually gives you approximately 30 days to pay the fine before your case goes to court, said Bailey Haynes.
A Section 56 offence may also give you the option of paying an “admission of guilt” fine to avoid an appearance in court – in which event Section 57 would apply.
An admission of guilt fine is offered for less serious offences and does not require the offender to appear in court, though, you will end up with a “deemed” conviction and thus a criminal record on the CRC.
This option is often viewed as a convenience, as opposed to spending the night in a jail cell or having to appear before court.
However, one must consider the consequences of paying an admission of guilt fine.
In the eyes of the law, this fine means you plead guilty to the offence and receive a criminal record once a formal docket is opened and fingerprints obtained, which will remain valid for 10 years.
This can affect you in many ways, such as minimising employment prospects and delaying applications for things such as travel visas or firearm licences.
If you have been caught showing total disregard for the legal speed limit you may also be served with a Non-Admission of Guilt (NAG) fine.
Trafico explains that NAG fines are considered one of the most serious types of traffic offences in South Africa.
Receiving a NAG fine attracts consequences such as a prison sentence of up to five years, fines of as much as R25,000, and a mandatory suspension of your licence. The severity of the punishment depends on the number of offences committed and the seriousness of the violation.
When you receive an NAG fine, the amount to be paid will be determined by the public prosecutor on the day of your trial.
Aarto Act
In terms of the Aarto Act, which for now is only in effect in the municipalities of Tshwane and Johannesburg, a motorist who refuses to pay their speeding fine will eventually be blocked from performing any licence-related activities.
Aarto has decriminalised many traffic infringements that were previously seen as criminal offences under the CPA; as a result, it introduces a new three-step process for serving fines to implicated motorists.
A motorist caught speeding will be served with an infringement notice written and issued on the side of the road, or delivered electronically via mail.
Following this, the recipient has 32 days to:
- Submit a written appeal contesting the alleged violation.
- Pay a discounted fine and incur applicable demerit points.
- Arrange to pay the fine in instalments and incur applicable demerit points.
- Nominate another driver if the vehicle owner was not responsible for the infringement.
If the recipient does not respond within the first 32 days, a courtesy letter will be issued to remind them of the outstanding fine.
Following this, the recipient again has 32 days to:
- Submit a written appeal contesting the alleged violation.
- Pay the full fine plus R200, as well as incur the applicable demerit points.
In the case where the recipient did not respond during the first or second periods, an enforcement order is issued.
This applies the needed demerit points and blocks the recipient from performing any licensing transactions on the National Traffic Information System (Natis).
This makes it impossible for the recipient to get a new driver’s licence, a professional driving permit, or a new vehicle licence disc.
Following the issuance of an enforcement order, the recipient has another 32 days to pay the full fine plus R300. They can then apply to the registrar of the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) to have the enforcement order revoked.
If an alleged infringer fails to act on an enforcement order, the Registrar of the RTIA may, if he or she wishes to do so, issue a warrant of execution.
Such warrant authorises the Sheriff to:
- “Disable” the alleged infringer’s vehicle
- Seize the driving licence card of the alleged infringer
- Seize and/or deface all vehicle licence discs belonging to the alleged infringer
- Seize movable property to the value of the penalty and its fees, together with his or her fees
However, it’s worth noting that no warrants of execution have been issued to date, said Aarto.co.za.
If you exceed the posted speed limit by over 40km/h in an Aarto municipality, it will be deemed an offence rather than in infringement, in which case the CPA will be applied and you will be required to go to court.
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