As part of the third phase of the rollout of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto), the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) will add 144 municipal areas to the new traffic fine system between 1 January and 30 June 2022.
The Aarto system is currently only in use in Johannesburg and Tshwane, as reported by MyBroadband.
Under the Aarto system, many traffic offences that were previously classified as criminal offences have been decriminalized, creating a need for a new way to serve fines to motorists.
Serving fines
With the new Aarto system in place, a motorist will receive an infringement notice that gives them 32 days to respond by paying a fine and incurring the applicable demerit points, with the amount of demerit points dependant on the severity of the offence.
Motorists will be given the option to receive their fines through the post, via SMS or mobile messaging services, or online, including emails, said RTIA spokesperson Monde Mkalipi.
Failure to respond to the first notice will result in a courtesy letter to be sent to the motorist with an additional R200 fine due to missing the deadline.
If both deadlines are missed, an enforcement order will be sent and the motorist will be blocked from performing licence-related activities on the Natis system.
To remove the block, the motorist will have to pay an additional R300 over the original fine and incur the applicable demerit points.
A maximum of 15 demerit points can be received by a driver. After this, they will be disqualified from driving their vehicle.
The duration of the disqualification will equal three months for every point over the 15-point limit.
The table below provides a breakdown of several common traffic offences – along with how many demerit points are associated with them.
There are currently 2,659 offences listed on the Aarto website.
| Infringement | Fine | Demerit Points |
|---|---|---|
|
Failure to comply and licences
|
||
| Failure to stop vehicle on the command of a traffic officer | N/A | 6 |
| Failure to comply with the direction of a police officer who is directing traffic | R2,000 | 3 |
| Operated a vehicle on a public road with expired licence | R2,000 | 3 |
| Operated a vehicle on a public road without a licence | R2,000 | 3 |
| Driving a vehicle with a learner’s licence with no licensed driver in the car | R3,500 | 5 |
|
Roadworthiness and lights
|
||
| Removed or altered components of vehicle affecting its roadworthiness | R3,500 | 5 |
| Operated a vehicle with a brake that is not in good working order | R3,500 | 5 |
| Operated a vehicle with a damaged lamp (light) | R1,000 | 1 |
| Operated a vehicle between sunset and sunrise or during unfavourable visibility conditions without lamps | R1,500 | 2 |
| Stop lamp (light) not emitting a red light when in use | R1,000 | 1 |
|
Seatbelts
|
||
| Driver did not ensure that all passengers were wearing seatbelts | R1,500 | 1 |
| Vehicle not fitted with seatbelts correctly | R1,000 | 1 |
| Seatbelts not working properly | R500 | 1 |
|
Traffic signs and speed limits
|
||
| Failed to obey stop sign | R1,500 | 2 |
| Failed to obey yield sign | R1,000 | 1 |
| Failed to obey directions at a four-way stop sign | R1,500 | 2 |
| Failed to comply with directions of a road traffic sign by not maintaining or exceeding the specified speed limit | R1,000 | 1 |
| Failed to comply with directions of a road traffic sign by not passing on the left-hand side | R500 | 1 |
Loading ...
