Traffic fines in South Africa are in the process of being administrated by the AARTO agency. The main purpose of the police speed trap motorists is to control and enforce the speed limit to speedsters on the road. The current system which is in effect in South Africa follows AARTO (the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences) was originally set up in 1998. The aim of AARTO is to get the whole country’s provincial and municipal traffic departments on the same system, working together with the eNATIS traffic department’s database. Traffic fines will all be administered by AARTO by 1 April 2011, it has been published that the demerit point system will also come into full effect. Drivers will be penalized with demerit points for various traffic offenses. If motorists rack up more than 12 points in a 12-month period, they risk having their driver’s license suspended for a predetermined period.
The South African police have a tough time enforcing the law on the national roads. Often motorists receive fines weeks later and can’t even remember where or why they were caught. The public is penalized with heavy fines costing thousands of Rands to enforce the law and respect of the speed limit regulations. Traffic fines and road offenses in South Africa must be taken seriously as many innocent people die on our roads due to speeding and other illegal road acts. After a traffic Offence has been recorded with a speed measuring equipment (SME) the traffic officer has the duty to hand over the photographic evidence in digital format to the respective Traffic department for processing. JMPD and other local municipalities use various independent and privately owned agencies Payfine.co.za and Viewfine.co.za (for areas outside of Gauteng).
These agencies are then tasked to process the fines in accordance with the TSCP which is the guided lines set out by the National Director of Prosecution. The images processed and notice of infringement letters (AARTO 08 letters) are sent out via registered post to the motorists. The address details and driver details are sources from the National Abatis database. It is required by law that the issuing traffic fine department or agency must submit and post the traffic fine notice within 32 days from the date of the offense. This means that the date post must not exceed 32 calendar days from the date of the offense. The police cannot be held responsible for any delays for late posts due to the slow processing service of the South African postal service. It is important to collect your post regularly and to deal with your traffic fines as soon as possible.
The infringement letter is sent to the owner of the vehicle by default, and the owner or driver has thirty-two days in which to either pay the traffic fine, elect a driver (if someone else was driving the vehicle) or to dispute the fine due to irregularities or errors found on the traffic fine. The system allows a discount of 50% on the penalties if the fine is paid in full within this period. This is obviously an incentive to collect outstanding money as quickly as possible. The driver or vehicle owner ticketed will have sixty-four (64) days to provide AARTO representation if any fines are in dispute. The motorist will need to either download or fill out the AARTO 08 form online on the AARTO website. If someone else was driving the vehicle, you can elect to have the fine reissued to the offending driver.
