Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has postponed the national roll-out of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act to July 1, 2026.
The decision, announced on Monday, delays implementation that was scheduled for 69 metros and municipalities from December 1 this year.
Department of Transport spokesperson Collen Msibi said the postponement followed a departmental readiness assessment that identified shortcomings in municipal preparations.
“Some of the issues identified during the assessment, in the main, include that law enforcement officials and back office personnel (are) not yet trained, the different systems used by municipal law enforcement have not yet been ‘harmonised’ and neither has the funding of this process,” said Msibi.
Aarto, signed into law through the 2019 Amendment Act, introduces a demerit point system to address road traffic offences administratively. The Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) administers penalties, with points deducted from driver licences for infringements such as speeding and overloading. Accumulation of 12 points leads to a three-month licence suspension.
The system aims to reduce South Africa’s annual road death toll of over 12 000, with more than 80% of fatalities attributed to human error. It includes a national traffic register and holds vehicle rental operators liable for infringements.
Implementation has faced repeated delays. Originally planned for July 2020, it was postponed due to Covid-19 and RTIA recapitalisation.
Aarto has operated in Tshwane since 2021.
The previous plan called for roll-out to eight metropolitan municipalities – including Johannesburg, Cape Town and eThekwini – and 69 municipalities from December 1, 2025, with a further 144 municipalities joining in February 2026.
Creecy described Aarto in July 2025 as a system that “systematically aims at containing road user behaviour”. A new proclamation is expected to be made to set the revised timelines.
