Problems with South Africa’s new driving law

The government recently confirmed that the next stage of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act will be rolled out nationwide from 1 December 2025.

However, the act is unlikely to achieve its stated purpose and will become a costly and ineffective endeavour.

This is according to the Organization Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), which cited the challenges the act has faced in its initial rollout across Johannesburg and Pretoria.

President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that the Aarto Act will be introduced across 69 metros and municipalities 1 December, and that the remaining 144 municipalities will be added on 1 April 2026.

The controversial demerit system, which is directly tied to the Aarto Act, will then go live on 1 September 2026.

This system will allocate penalty points on an individual’s licence for various driving offences, with more severe infringements earning more points than mild ones.

Once a person accumulates 15 points, their licence will be suspended for a period of three months per point over the 15-point threshold.

Importantly, the points expire three months after they are received, meaning a person would need to commit several offences in a relatively short period to lose their licence.

In a recent interview on 702, Outa executive director Advocate Stefanie Fick explained that the system is designed to promote better driving on South Africa’s roads.

“I think the principle, if you look at it on paper, is just to say: okay, we want an administrative process instead of sending people through the whole court system,” she said.

“In essence, what they want to do is create better drivers by saying: if you commit these minor offences, you can lose your licence.”

The problem with Aarto is that it has not proven to be effective in its earlier rollouts across Gauteng, quickly running into financial issues with the way it is enforced.

“In the beginning, they ran out of money. In terms of the Aarto Act, you need to either serve the infringement in person or you need to do it via registered post,” she said.

“They ran out of money and they couldn’t send it via registered post, and obviously, I don’t think they have the resources to serve it on everybody.”

Fick noted that if authorities don’t follow the prescribed procedure, which requires them to send an infringement notice and a courtesy letter within 32 days, they cannot enforce the act.

“So, also their inability to follow their own procedure was a bit of a problem from the start. And tell me, do you really think people are driving better in Joburg? No,” she said.

A new headache for motorists

The demerit system is expected to create new problems for fleet operators, as both drivers and cars can accumulate points.

“With unroadworthiness and those types of intervention, you can actually get double points for the driver and for the car,” said Fick.

“At some point, your driver, because he’s a driver, will get demerit points and they can’t drive anymore. Also, your cars can’t be on the road.”

Additionally, the demerit system is likely to exacerbate the issue of cloned and stolen vehicles in South Africa.

Motorists are already facing issues where they are receiving speeding tickets because of criminals using cars with copies of their licence plates.

The consequences of these incidents will therefore be much higher when the rightful owner of a car is at risk of losing their licence because someone stole or cloned their vehicle.

“I’ve got tickets where it’s my motor vehicle licence, but it’s not me because it’s a duplicated car, or your car gets stolen and it is used by someone else,” said Fick.

“So, because the system is not functioning properly, I do think that people may run into trouble because of the system.”

The demerit system was supposed to be implemented by July 2022, but has been delayed multiple times as a result of legal disputes.

In July 2023, the Constitutional Court ruled that the Aarto Act is constitutional and valid, and the system is now set to be implemented by the end of this year.

The table below shows the fine and demerit amounts that will be distributed for common traffic offences in South Africa: