There are two types of fines you can be served for traffic infringements in South Africa, according to the City of Cape Town.
The first is a Section 56 notice, which is issued by a traffic officer and usually involves an offence that happened while the vehicle was moving.
This notice gives you a pay date as well as a court date. You’ll also have 30 days to pay the fine, and you must attend court on the appointed date, which will be within four months from the date of issue.
Alternatively, there’s a Section 341 notice which is issued to a motorist by post.
This classification is for violations caught on a traffic camera or as a traffic ticket (pink slip) while the motorist is not around for things such as an expired licence disc, parking in a loading zone, or parking on a red demarcated lane.
This notice does not have a court date but still affords the receiver 30 days to pay the fine before a notice of summons is issued, after which they’ll get a further 30 days to pay before a summons with a court date is sent.
In the case of excessive speeding, drivers may also be slapped with a third type of fine that is not covered by the Section 56 or 341 notices.
A speeding fine is also known as an “Admission of Guilt” fine, and authorities use a standardised table to decide how much you should be penalised.
However, if you are caught driving 30km/h above the speed limit or more, you stand the risk of being issued a Non-Admission of Guilt (NAG) fine.
If you are issued with a NAG fine, this means that the speed you were travelling at the time of the offence was too far above the legal speed limit for the fine amount to be determined by the standardised table of speeding fines.
If you receive such a fine, the monetary amount you’ll have to pay is not included on the notice.
That’s because a magistrate must decide on the fine amount in court, or, depending on the severity of the offence and the prosecutor’s decision, you could face a prison sentence.
Don’t pay fines at roadblocks
South African authorities recently warned motorists that they can not be forced by traffic officers to pay fines at roadblocks, following a spate of incidents in which drivers claimed they were coerced and intimidated into doing so.
Our traffic laws allow two types of roadblocks namely formal and informal stops.
When an officer waves you down at a formal roadblock, they need to inform you about the reason for stopping, and if it is to check for outstanding traffic fines, they’ll advise you on what to do if you do have infractions to your name and want to get them cleared on the spot.
“The important thing is that you’re not forced to pay traffic fines within the City of Johannesburg,” said Johannesburg Metro Police Department’s Xolani Fihla earlier this year.
“We are using the Aarto system, and with this system, you are not forced to pay the traffic fine immediately at the roadblock and you won’t be arrested for any outstanding traffic fines.”
The same counts at an informal roadblock, also known as a roadside check. Here, officers can ensure that your vehicle is roadworthy and may ask for your ID and driver’s licence as well as verify whether you have outstanding fines, however, they can not force you to pay fines.
The same applies outside of Johannesburg, where the Criminal Procedures Act is used to prosecute scofflaws on the road.
“Police cannot prevent you from proceeding on a journey because of an outstanding traffic fine, or arrest you for outstanding fines without following due process,” said Fines SA, a platform that enables motorists to check and pay traffic fines for over 250 municipalities around the country.
“Be extremely cautious if the person at the roadblock, in police uniform or otherwise, asks you to accompany them to an ATM to pay a fine. Do not agree to go.”
The organisation warns, however, that not paying traffic fines could see a warrant issued for your arrest, in which case a traffic officer is within their jurisdiction to detain you at a roadblock no matter where you are going.
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