{"id":864942,"date":"2026-06-29T16:33:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=864942"},"modified":"2026-06-29T16:39:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:39:26","slug":"ramaphosa-proclaims-new-driving-laws-for-62-municipalities-in-south-africa-starting-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/864942\/ramaphosa-proclaims-new-driving-laws-for-62-municipalities-in-south-africa-starting-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa proclaims new driving laws for 62 municipalities in South Africa starting this week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa has proclaimed the list of 62 municipalities in South Africa where the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO) will go live this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In two separate gazettes, the Presidency, through the Department of Transport, has proclaimed the commencement of the AARTO Act and the AARTO Amendment Act in the municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first gazette proclaimed the commencement of sections 17, 18, 19, 19A, 19B, 20, 23, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34 and 35 of the AARTO Act in 60 municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sections relate to the general rollout of the system, outlining the processes for infringement notices and penalties, as well as other regulations that give effect to the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It excludes section 24, which is directly related to the points demerit system, which is expected to be implemented further down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The AARTO rollout includes major metros like Buffalo City, Nelson Mandela Bay, Mangaung, the City of Ekurhuleni, and Durban, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The cities of Johannesburg and Tshwane are excluded from the AARTO rollout commencement as the system has already been in place in these metros for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second gazette proclaims the commencement of the AARTO Amendment Act in full, except for section 2(g). This is being implemented in 62 municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The provisions of the Amendment Act are going live in all 62 new municipalities, which include the City of Johannesburg and City of Tshwane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The full list of municipalities can be found below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/54918-29-6-Transport-1.pdf\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/54917-29-6-Transport.pdf\"><strong>second gazette can be found here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Phase 2 of the rollout<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The rollout of AARTO this week marks the delayed start to phase 2 of the national driving law overhaul, which was initially expected to start in December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The full system would have been fully implemented by 1 September 2026, when the driving demerit system would be in operation nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the Transport Department postponed the rollout in November 2025 when a readiness assessment flagged deficiencies around municipal integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These deficiencies included the finalisation of the law enforcement and back office personnel, as well as the lack of harmonisation of the current law enforcement systems used by various municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time, the rollout was effectively delayed by six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A key component of the AARTO system is the new driving demerit system, which does not yet have a specific launch date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phase 1 of the rollout involved establishing AARTO infrastructure and service centres in preparation for the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phase 2 of the rollout will commence from 1 July 2026, targeting 62 municipalities (down from 69 previously).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phase 3 is expected to commence in the third quarter of the year (circa October 2026), targeting 151 municipalities (up from 144 previously).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phase 4 will see the launch of the demerit system, currently expected sometime in 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><div class=\"table-responsive\"><table class=\"table\" class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Phases<\/th><th>Target<\/th><th>Date<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Phase 1<\/td><td>The establishment of AARTO infrastructure, including service outlets, and ensuring eNATIS could handle payments.<\/td><td>Completed<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Phase 2<\/td><td>Introduction of AARTO to 62 municipalities.<\/td><td>1 July 2026<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Phase 3<\/td><td>Introduction of AARTO to 151 municipalities.<\/td><td>Q3 (October-December 2026)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Phase 4<\/td><td>Implementation of the demerit point system and rehabilitation programme.<\/td><td>TBA<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the list of 62 municipalities in South Africa where AARTO will go live this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":771982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[6539,2552],"class_list":["post-864942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-aarto","tag-department-of-transport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864942","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864942"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":864952,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864942\/revisions\/864952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}