Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) spokesperson Monde Mkalipi has warned motorists to be careful about paying traffic fines online.
This warning comes over concerns of scammers sending fraudulent alerts to unsuspecting drivers.
Mkalipi touched on this issue while speaking to Newzroom Afrika, where he stated that drivers need to keep in mind that the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Act documents will only be served digitally from 1 December 2025.
RTIA has recently received numerous calls from frustrated South Africans who thought they had paid their fines through an official digital channel, only to find they were still being blocked from renewing their driving or vehicle licenses.
“We receive calls from road users who say they’ve made payments to resolve their auto fines, but when they went to renew their driving licences or licence discs, they were told that they are still owing,” said Mkalipi.
“At the moment, in terms of legal processes, the serving of Aarto documents electronically is not yet in place. It will only come into effect from 1 December 2025.”
He would go on to explain that RTIA currently only uses two methods of serving Aarto documents: registered mail, via the South African Post Office, and “personal service”.
Mkalipi also stressed that if any South African gets emailed documents, they should contact RTIA directly to ensure they’re valid and use the right payment channels.
In terms of checking the validity of alerts, he also explained that there are a few key signs to keep an eye out for.
This includes the documents coming without a photo of the fined vehicle and the documents arriving at awkward times.
“Even if your ID number appears there. Even if the registration number of your car appears there, please contact the RTIA,” he said.
Risks of paying online
Criminal defence attorney William Booth has cautioned South Africans against wilfully paying traffic fines through third-party websites.
Even with legitimate sites, there’s a chance that the platform will supply inaccurate information that could lead to motorists overpaying or paying when they don’t need to.
This is because the person working at this platform may have posted the information incorrectly.
“Then it turns out that you don’t have the fines, and whoever posted it there got it wrong,” he said.
Along with this, there are also outright fraudulent sites that intentionally try to scam people out of their money, and it can be difficult to sort the legitimate communications from the scams.
“I think the problem these days is we all get notifications from all kinds of sources, and most of them are actually bogus,” he said.
Driving.co.za managing director Rob Handfield-Jones echoed these concerns and has advocated that the process of paying through third-party platforms should be stopped, mainly due to the profit aspect of the arrangement.
“The moment a profit incentive is introduced into anything, profit becomes the goal, not results,” Handfield-Jones said.
“The issue of fake fine websites is the inevitable outcome of the State allowing the private sector to become involved in law enforcement.”
He has questioned the logic in this arrangement, especially as the Department of Transport already has an e-Natis website.
“No more third-party providers. The provision of third-party access to e-Natis should be strictly limited to a need-to-have basis, like private roadworthy testing stations and vehicle finance companies.”
Loading ...
