{"id":838917,"date":"2025-10-05T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=838917"},"modified":"2025-10-06T12:41:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T10:41:54","slug":"new-laws-make-it-easier-for-south-africans-to-have-their-driving-licence-taken-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/838917\/new-laws-make-it-easier-for-south-africans-to-have-their-driving-licence-taken-away\/","title":{"rendered":"New laws make it easier for South Africans to have their driving licence taken away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans must understand that the imminent rollout of the AARTO Act will have major consequences for South African motorists, fundamentally changing how traffic fines are enforced and making it far easier for drivers to lose their licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the message from Barry Berman, Chief Executive Officer of Fines SA, who has warned that from December this year, just around the corner, the new system is set to change the way every motorist deals with traffic fines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt introduces demerit points, licence suspensions, and stricter penalties for non-payment. With millions of fines issued annually and fraud already on the rise, the stakes for motorists and businesses are high.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Berman, the system has been in development for more than 15 years. \u201cThe pilot, which has been running in Joburg and Tshwane, has now been fine-tuned. I do believe it’s ready and, yeah, all systems are go for 1 December,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Berman explained that the biggest risk is that motorists accustomed to ignoring fines will face serious consequences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s been apathy for many years with traffic fines in South Africa. The existing system was launched in 1977, and the payment rates have been quite low. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMotorists are now going to get a very big surprise because what’s happening is that they are going to get these AARTO infringements, which are very quickly going to escalate to enforcement orders, which then mean that they’re going to be blocked on the system,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than chasing down motorists directly, the government will simply lock them out of essential transactions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGovernment is not going to be coming after the motorists. They’re going to be blocking them on the eNATIS system,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhich then means that the motorists are not going to be able to transact at all, which means buying a car, selling a car, renewing their car licence disk, even renewing their driver’s licence. And then they are going to be forced at that point to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expect teething problems <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While concerns remain about whether municipalities can handle the new system, Berman noted that AARTO will run at a national level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berman explained that the difference with the existing CPA system and the new system is that the new system is going to be a national system, so it’s actually run at a national level.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have engaged with multiple technology partners who are assisting on the back end. I’m sure there will be some teething problems, but we’re pretty confident that they’ve ironed out most of the glitches,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest shifts will come with the demerit points system, although this only fully takes effect in 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou would be surprised how quickly you can hit the limit befor eyour licence is taken away. You can lose a minimum of 1 point per infringement up to a maximum of 6 points,\u201d Berman warned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are an unlicensed driver, for example, that is 6 points gone in one go. If your vehicle is unlicensed, that’s another 6 points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are quite a few categories where you can lose 6 points in one go, and that\u2019s going to create a major issue for those who depend on driving for their livelihood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another emerging problem is fraud and scams linked to fines. \u201cFraudsters are already circulating so-called ghost fines,\u201d said Berman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we are advising motorists to do is to be very cautious before they click on any links from companies that they’ve never heard of or from dodgy email addresses,\u201d said Berman. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An expert warns that South Africans must understand that the imminent rollout of the AARTO Act will have major consequences for South African motorists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":724700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[18053,853,23077],"class_list":["post-838917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-fines-sa","tag-south-africa","tag-the-administrative-adjudication-of-road-traffic-offences-aarto-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838917"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839152,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838917\/revisions\/839152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}