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Thursday / 6 February 2025
HomeFeaturesHow much you’ll be fined in South Africa – Based on how fast you’re driving

How much you’ll be fined in South Africa – Based on how fast you’re driving

The minimum fine for speeding in South Africa is R250, which is levied if you exceed the posted speed limit by 10-15km/h.

From there it goes up by R250 for every 5km/h increment until reaching a maximum of R1,500 when you go between 36-40km/h over the speed limit.

Faster than this, and you’ll end up in handcuffs and will have to appear before a public prosecutor.

Types of traffic fines in South Africa

There are two types of fines for traffic infringements in South Africa comprising a Section 56 notice and Section 341 notice, according to the City of Cape Town.

A Section 56 notice is issued by a traffic officer and usually involves an incident that took place while the vehicle was in motion.

This notice stipulates a fine amount as well as a court date. You’ll 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.

Meanwhile, a Section 341 notice is sent to an infringer via 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 gives the motorist 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.

Honing in on speeding fines, there are two variants of these as well.

The first is an “Admission of Guilt” (AG) fine which is issued if you are recorded going between 10-40km/h over the limit and imposes a certain monetary penalty.

The second is a “Non-Admission of Guilt” (NAG) fine which is issued if you were driving in excess of 40km/h.

In this scenario, the fine amount will not be included in the infringement notice.

Instead, a public prosecutor will give you the amount on the day of your trial and you will pay the fine at the court or, depending on the offense and the prosecutor’s decision, you could face a prison sentence.

The value of the fines you can expect to receive, based on how fast you were driving, are as follows:

60km/h zone 80km/h zone 100km/h zone 120km/h zone Fines Demerits
70-75km/h 91-95km/h 111-115km/h 131-135km/h R250 0
76-80km/h 96-100km/h 116-120km/h 136-140km/h R500 1
81-85km/h 101-105km/h 121-125km/h 141-145km/h R750 2
86-90km/h 106-110km/h 126-130km/h 146-150km/h R1,000 3
91-95km/h 111-115km/h 131-135km/h 151-155km/h R1,250 4
96-100km/h 116-120km/h 136-140km/h 156-160km/h R1,500 5
100km/h+ 120km/h+ 140km/h+ 160km/h+ NAG 6

It must be noted that these are based on the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act which is in effect in the municipalities of Johannesburg and Tshwane, instead of the Criminal Procedures Act.

The Aarto Act decriminalizes several traffic infringements that were previously classified as criminal offenses, and imposes monetary fines on the offender as well as demerit points on their driver’s licenses.

Outside the confines of these municipalities, traffic infringements are handled by the Criminal Procedures Act. As such, fines will vary from location to location.

“The Chief Magistrates of the Western Cape, in collaboration with Magistrate Cluster Heads and Traffic Authorities, determine the fines that will be applicable to the Western Cape,” Cape Town Traffic Services spokesperson Maxine Bezuidenhout told TopAuto.

This suggests that other provinces will have the same powers, too.

Speeding tolerance

One thing you’ll notice in the table is a so-called “tolerance” of 10km/h.

In layman’s terms, this means you won’t be fined for speeding if you are within a 10km/h range of the legal limit.

This tolerance is to accommodate small calibration errors in vehicle speedometers between the many manufacturers of cars on the road, and to avoid prosecuting persons who marginally exceed the speed limit and clogging up the legal system.

It should be noted, however, that the 10km/h grace does not apply to average speed-over-distance cameras, which track the average speed a motorist travels across a set number of kilometers through the use of overhead cameras with number-plate recognition technologies.

This is because these systems are more accurate in determining the true speed the vehicle was driving at than a momentary snapshot taken by a roadside camera.

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