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The Constitutional Court declared the AARTO Act (Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences) and the Amendment Acts constitutional and valid.

This decision overturns the ruling made by the Pretoria High Court on the 13th of January 2022 in the challenge brought by OUTA (Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse).

  

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AARTO Act - offences and penalties

Currently (Gauteng)
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.

  • 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 ascertained 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.

AARTO Amendment Act, 2019

The AARTO Amendment Act, 2019 was signed into law on the 13th of August 2019, and is to commence on a date to be announced. The DoT communicated that a phased country-wide implementation would be implemented.

Some of the proposed changes are:

  • The RTIA will be granted 60 days (currently 40 days) to perform their task of serving the Infringement Notice to an alleged infringer.
  • More than 15 (not 12) demerit points will have the licence suspended. (6 points if you are the holder of a learners licence)
  • One to six demerit points could be allocated, depending on the severety of the infringement.
  • On the third suspension of the licence, it must be cancelled and destroyed.
  • Permits and operating licences could now be suspended or cancelled as with driving lincences and operator cards.
  • Email, SMS's and other forms of electronic service will be considered valid forms of notification.
  • Guilty until proven otherwise. The option for offenders to elect to appear in court in order to challenge the prosecution has been removed. A written representation may be made to the Road Traffic Infringement Agency and if unsuccessful, the alleged offender may appeal to the newly created Appeals Tribunal. If the Tribunal rejects the appeal, the alleged infringer can opt to approach the Magistrate's Court. (Keep in mind that fees apply to each option you persue)
  • The Infringement penalty levy is an additional R100 (not subjected to discount) because you have been issued with an infringement notice.
  • If an infringer opts to pay in instalments, payment must be made within a maximum of 6 monthly instalments (currently 10).

Download the proposed AARTO Act and Regulations below:

AARTO Act - Gov Gaz 42648 of 19 August 2019

AARTO Regulations - Gov Gaz 43758 of 2 October 2020