The new traffic law that makes it easier to lose your driving licence

The soon-to-be-implemented AARTO Act will profoundly impact South African motorists and change how traffic fines are enforced.

This will make it far easier for drivers to lose their licences and means drivers will need to take extra care to avoid falling prey to the new laws.

Barry Berman, Chief Executive Officer of Fines SA, highlighted this issue ahead of the AARTO’s implementation in December.

“It introduces demerit points, licence suspensions, and stricter penalties for non-payment. With millions of fines issued annually and fraud already on the rise, the stakes for motorists and businesses are high.”

Berman also noted that the system has been in development for over 15 years, with a pilot running in Joburg and Tshwane.

Based on this pilot, he believes the system has been fine-tuned and is ready for its 1 December launch.

With the launch of this new system, motorists who have grown accustomed to ignoring fines will need to change their habits or face serious consequences.

“Motorists are now going to get a very big surprise because what’s happening is that they are going to get these AARTO infringements, which are very quickly going to escalate to enforcement orders, which then mean that they’re going to be blocked on the system,” he warned.

Under the new system, the government won’t chase after motorists; instead, it will just lock them out of essential transactions on the eNATIS system.

“Which then means that the motorists are not going to be able to transact at all, which means buying a car, selling a car, renewing their car licence disk, or even renewing their driver’s licence. And then they are going to be forced at that point to pay,” he explained.

This is significant as the current system, which was launched in 1977, has been widely ignored by many drivers with payment rates for traffic fines being quite low.

System launch

A key difference between the AARTO and the current system is that the new system will run at a national level.

“They have engaged with multiple technology partners who are assisting on the back end. I’m sure there will be some teething problems, but we’re pretty confident that they’ve ironed out most of the glitches,” he said.

However, a key part of the system, that being the demerit system, will only be implemented in 2026.

Berman has warned that when the demerit system is live, drivers must be careful as it can be very easy to accumulate points.

“You would be surprised how quickly you can hit the limit before your licence is taken away. You can lose a minimum of 1 point per infringement up to a maximum of 6 points,” he said.

“There are quite a few categories where you can lose 6 points in one go, and that’s going to create a major issue for those who depend on driving for their livelihood.”

One such example is driving with an unlicensed vehicle, which will instantly incur a penalty of six demerit points.

Berman has also said that they’re already seeing fraudsters taking advantage of the system and circulating false fines, which he called “ghost fines”.

“What we are advising motorists to do is to be very cautious before they click on any links from companies that they’ve never heard of or from dodgy email addresses.”