The transport ministry has deferred the implementation of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act to July 1 2026 as municipalities battle to establish systems to enable its smooth operations.
This is after the Road Traffic Infringement Authority (RTIA), which administers Aarto, among others, indicated recently the phased rollout of the legislation would begin on December 1 and continue until September 1 2026.
Aarto is a online system for dealing with traffic violations administratively instead of through the criminal justice system. It is aimed at making the process of handling traffic fines more efficient, introduce a demerit points system that can lead to driver’s licence suspension and improve the collection of fines to fund road safety initiatives.
Transport department spokesperson Collen Msibi said: “The postponement comes amid an assessment by the department of the state of readiness in some of the municipalities that were to form part of the first implementation phase.”
He said some of the issues identified during the assessment included the finalisation of training of both law enforcement and back office personnel; the harmonisation of the law enforcement system used by various municipalities and funding.
“The department will soon publish the new proclamation with new staggered implementation dates, [with] July 1 2026 being the official implementation date.”
“The phased approach of implementation will still be maintained as initially envisaged,” Msibi said.
For the 2025/26 financial year, R215m was allocated to the RTIA to ensure adequate capacity for Aarto’s national rollout.
Speaking at a road safety campaign, MasterDrive CEO Eugene Herbert said Aarto would be onerous for businesses.
MasterDrive is a provider of specialised and advanced driver training programmes for corporations, fleets and various other drivers.
“If fines are not settled within 30 days not only is the discount lost but consequences escalate. When fines are not paid, businesses cannot renew vehicle licences, transfer ownership or register new vehicles,” Herbert said.
“This requires the appointment of someone to trace and settle fines. Should an organisation fail to do this, and fines remain unpaid, this can incapacitate a business by preventing legal operation.
“This heralds major change for organisations that do not settle fines under the current legislation. In 2023, it was estimated that less than 20% of fines were not paid.
“The new Aarto Act makes it impossible to avoid non-compliance. The ENatis system can trace fines using the Business Registration Number. It necessitates tracking fines and putting verified payment systems in place immediately to avoid costly downtime.”
Civil action organisation Outa has repeatedly said that valid and effective measures to improve traffic safety should be supported. But it said Aarto was “bureaucratically clumsy” and appeared to be primarily a fund-raising system unlikely to contribute to road safety.
Public Servants Association GM Reuben Maleka said: “The PSA believes that the implementation of the demerit system will not curb road accidents in the country, in opposite the demerit will result in an increase in chronic maladministration, fraud, unemployment and crime.”
“The lack of visibility of traffic officers, attributed to understaffing, is the main contributor to road unsafety.”
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