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AARTO Act - offences and penalties

What's new?
A person, alleged to have committed an offence, is served with a ticket (infringement notice) carrying a spot fine, in much the same way as before. A handwritten form, describing the offence, is handed to the driver, or affixed to the vehicle, at the time of the offence. In the case of a camera recorded infringement, it is served by registered mail.

What has changed is:

  • No court date is set at this stage
  • Admission of guilt fines are set by the National Department of Transport and uniformly applied throughout the country
  • The public prosecutor no longer has the power to reduce fines
  • An alternative lesser charge may also be stipulated
  • The notice states the number of penalty points that will be incurred
  • The choice of options and procedures.

Options
Except for serious offences, where there is no option but to appear in court, you may:

  • Pay the fine within 30 days at a discount of 50%
  • Apply to pay in instalments, using form AARTO 04 (65 KB), in which case the discount falls away
  • If you were not the driver, give details of who was driving at the time, on form AARTO 07 (56 KB)
  • Refute liability, using form AARTO 08 (51 KB)
  • Say you wish to be tried in court, using form AARTO 10 (61 KB).

Time allowed for post
Whenever an infringement notice, a follow-up "courtesy letter" or, eventually, an enforcement order is sent by registered mail, it is regarded as having been served ten days after posting it.

The system, of necessity, has to be time sensitive, in that it must allow for certain time periods to lapse before progressing to the next step of the sequence of events. Yet, it makes extensive use of the sluggish and hardly reliable postal service. In the light of time delays involved in postal communication, the efficacy of the system is debatable, more especially since many offenders in this country are not so easily contactable at a postal address.

Offences
Traffic violations are divided into the following three groups according to severity:

  • An offence, where there is no admission of guilt fine and the case must be tried in court
  • A major infringement, where an admission of guilt is permitted or the case goes to court
  • The least severe where, in addition to paying an admission of guilt, representations may be made to refute the liability.

Under Section 17 (5) of the Act it is an offence to allow a person to drive a motor vehicle without having acsertained his or her full names, acceptable identification and residential and postal address. Failure to be able to provide these details is punishable by up to a year's imprisonment or a fine of R750 or both. The need to know who drove what, where and when, makes it all the more vital for operators to implement a Driver's Daily Log> system.

Penalties
 For each violation, the Table of offences and penalties> indicates the admission of guilt fine and the number of demerit points, if any.

It should be remembered that the fine listed is subject to the 50% discount if paid within 32 days and that in the case of an operator being a company or closed corporation, the fine, listed, is tripled.

Also, the unroadworthy fines for vehicles required to undergo annual roadworthy certification are higher than for other vehicles.

An operator can be charged, either with the offence committed or, alternatively, in a case such as a driver not having an appropriate PrDP, for failing in his duty to exercise proper control over drivers.

A free CD containing the complete AARTO Act, the Amendments and Regulations is available with the Rules of the Road>

  


National Road Traffic Act and Regulations as Amended

1st Edition - 2011
Compiled and presented by Ken Ramsden

Neatly laid out and styled for easy use and reference, this user-friendly format, uncrushable coil-bound book is completely authentic and up-to-date. Designed for those who work both in and out of the office, it optimises the use of colour for clarity and puts the Act and regulations at your fingertips.

Bang up-to-date
Updated to incorporate all the implemented amendments in the National Road Traffic Amendment Acts including those proclaimed in Gov Gaz 33742 of 10 November 2010.

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