Where was it issued?
Which system applies
AARTO applies in the municipalities named in the 2026 proclamations and nowhere else. Pick the one printed on your notice; if it is not listed, you are on the Criminal Procedure Act route.
62 municipalities · type to narrow
Until you choose, treat every AARTO figure on this page as conditional. It is wrong for most of the country.
The AARTO infringement notice
An AARTO matter is a chain of documents, not a single fine. The infringement notice comes first; if nothing happens a courtesy letter follows, then an enforcement order — and each one adds its own fee and starts its own clock. Knowing which document you are holding is what tells you how much time you have.
Who issued this
Two ways a notice reaches you, and they run on different clocks
An infringement notice is either handed to you at the roadside by an authorised officer or generated from a matter recorded remotely and sent to you. The document is the same kind of document; what differs is when it counts as served and how long the authority had to serve it.
Stopped in person, the notice is served there and then, and every clock on it starts that day. Recorded remotely — by camera, or where the notice goes by post — the authority has 60 days from the day the infringement was committed to serve it, and the notice is then deemed served a further 10 days after it was sent unless evidence to the contrary is led. A reader working from the date printed on the page is therefore counting from the wrong day in one of the two cases, and it is the case that covers most camera-recorded matters.
The content each notice must carry is prescribed: the regulations set out the forms themselves in a schedule. This site does not reproduce those forms field by field and does not paraphrase what any of them must contain — a description of a prescribed form written from memory is exactly the kind of claim a reader would be entitled to rely on and should not. What it can tell you is what the form does: it identifies the infringement, states the amount, sets out the options open to you, and starts both the discount window and the window for choosing among them.
If the car is yours and you were not driving
Where the driver is not nominated, the consequence attaches to the owner
Where a driver is not nominated, the regulations attach the demerit-point consequence to the owner — against the owner’s own driver record, operator card or vehicle licence disc, as the case may be. An operator’s points and a driver’s points are also recorded separately, so one is never a total of the other. For a company vehicle or a car lent out, nominating the driver is what moves the result off the owner.
Both of those are demerit-point provisions, and demerit points do not carry a legal consequence in most of the country: the sections that would impose one were not brought into operation there. Whether they do where your notice was issued is settled by the municipality on the document.
Regulation 20(5)(a)–(c); section 24(3)(b) and regulation 20(2)
The chain
Three documents, in this order
An AARTO matter is a sequence, not a single fine. Each document has its own name, its own fee and its own clock — and knowing which one you are holding is what tells you how much time is left.
- Infringement noticeThe first document. It states the infringement, the amount and the options open to you, and it starts both the discount window and the window for choosing an option. s.17
- Courtesy letter — adds R100Issued when the notice window has passed with nothing done. It is a second chance with a fee attached, and it starts a clock of its own. s.19(2)(b)
- Enforcement order — adds R100Issued when the courtesy letter goes unanswered. This is the document with real consequences attached: while it stands unsatisfied, licences, permits and discs cannot be issued. s.20
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| Fee | Amount | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Courtesy letter | R100 | Schedule 2, paragraph 5.1; section 19(2)(b)(ii) |
| Enforcement order | R100 | Schedule 2, paragraph 5.2; section 20(3)(a) |
| Representation that is rejected | R100 | Schedule 2, paragraph 5.10; section 18(7)(b)(ii) |
| Appeal or review application | R200 | Schedule 2, paragraph 5.5; section 29B(2) |
From 30 June 2026 · Schedule 2 to the AARTO Regulations, 2026. THESE ARE FOUR DIFFERENT FEES that happen to be similar amounts — each has its own paragraph and its own trigger, and treating them as one is how a reader ends up expecting one charge and receiving three.
Two of them can fall away
If you can prove you already complied
The courtesy-letter fee is not payable if you can show acceptable proof that you complied before the letter was issued, and the enforcement-order fee is not payable if you can show you paid before the order was issued. Where a representation, appeal or review succeeds and the notice is cancelled, the penalty and fees are not payable at all. A fee quoted with no waiver condition beside it overstates what is owed.
Regulation 18(2)(a)–(b) and 18(3)
Service
How a document reaches you, and when it counts as served
Every clock on this page runs from the day the document is DEEMED served, which for anything posted or sent electronically is later than the date printed on it.
Handed to you in person, a document is served that day. Posted or served electronically, it is deemed served a set number of days after it was sent — 10 days — unless evidence to the contrary is led. That is not a technicality: it is where the discount window actually starts, and reading the date on the notice as the start date costs you the difference.
Electronic service became available with the amending Act. Before it, service was personal or by registered mail only.
Is this SMS genuine?
Never pay from a link in a message
Because electronic service is lawful, a genuine notification by SMS is possible — and that is exactly what makes impersonation effective. The safe procedure does not depend on spotting a fake: treat any message as a prompt only, then go to the official service or the issuing authority yourself, by typing its address rather than following a link, look the matter up by your own reference, and pay there.
No legitimate process needs you to send your identity number, licence number or card details in reply to a message. This site never asks for any of them either, and it renders no lookup form.
The clock
Work out your dates
There is not one 32-day deadline in this Act. There are ten, they attach to different events, and they happen to hold the same number today — so each date below names the provision it comes from.
The 32-day clock
Reads as day month year — e.g. 15 July 2026
The date printed on the notice, letter or order in front of you.
Your dates
Enter the date on your document and these dates fill in.
The ladder
Which rung a matter is on, and what governs there
Four states of the same matter. What changes between them is not only the amount — it is which provision sets the deadline, and whether the consequence that blocks a licence renewal has attached yet.
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| Where the matter stands | Due by | Licence, permit and disc issuance | What the rules say there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid inside the discount window | 02 Aug 2026 | Not blocked | Paid at the discounted amountThe discount applies. |
| Nothing done, and the window has closed | 02 Aug 2026 | Not blocked | Unpaid, inside the discount window |
| A courtesy letter has been served | 03 Sep 2026 | Not blocked | Unpaid, inside the courtesy-letter windowThe discount window has closed.The courtesy-letter fee has been added. |
| An enforcement order has been served | 05 Oct 2026 | Blocked | Unpaid, inside the enforcement-order windowThe discount window has closed.The courtesy-letter fee has been added.The enforcement-order fee has been added.No driving licence, professional driving permit, road-traffic or transport permit, or licence disc may be issued while the enforcement order stands. |
Computed from a notice deemed served on 1 July 2026 — a REFERENCE date, so the four rows are comparable. The amounts are deliberately not in this table: the figure for your own matter is on your own notice, and the module above is where it belongs. Sections 17, 19, 20(3) and 20(5)(a)–(c) and (bA).
The last row
Nothing about this expires
Under AARTO the laws on prescription do not apply — penalties and fees may be collected at any time. Read together with the issuance block in the last row, an ignored enforcement order does not fade: it sits between you and the next licence, professional driving permit, road-traffic or transport permit or licence disc, until it is complied with or revoked.
Sections 20(5), 20(6), 20(9) and 31(2)
The amount
What the chain does to the figure on your notice
Start from your own notice — this site does not hold the schedule that prices individual offences, and it will not print one it has not read.
What you pay, and when it changes
The figure on your own notice, in rand. This site does not hold the schedule that prices individual offences, so your notice is the source.
Where that amount comes from
The regulations do not print a rand figure for each offence directly. They give each offence a number of penalty units, fix the monetary value of one unit, and multiply. This site holds the unit value and the formula; it does not hold the table of units per offence.
penaltyUnits x penaltyUnitRand
penaltyAmount x (1 - discountFraction)That is the value of a UNIT. It is not the fine for anything, and this site never presents it as one.
Your amount through the chain
Enter the amount on your notice and this fills in.
- A rejected representation adds its own fee
- Making a representation is free. If it is rejected, a fee attaches — and the discount then reopens for a fresh window from the day the result is deemed served, which is a rule almost nothing else carries.R100 · Schedule 2, paragraph 5.10; section 18(7)(b)(ii)
- Instalments and the discount are mutually exclusive
- If you arrange to pay in instalments, you are not entitled to the discount and the full penalty and applicable fees become payable. A reader who takes instalments to make it manageable pays double what the discounted figure would have been.
Contesting it
Representation, and what happens after one
The statutory word is representation, not appeal — the appeal is a different, later step to a different body, and the two are not interchangeable.
- Make the representation inside the options windowIt runs 32 days from deemed service — the same clock as the discount, which is why paying first usually spends the objection. s.17(1)(f)
- If it is allowed, the notice is cancelledThe penalty and the fees are not payable. Where it succeeds because a prescribed PROCEDURE was not followed rather than on the merits, the document may be served again — but only inside 40 days of the representation being finalised and never later than 180 days from the day the infringement was committed, whichever comes first. s.18(1)(b)
- If it is rejected, R100 attaches — and the discount reopensA fresh window of 32 days runs from the day the result is deemed served, and a further 32 days from the outcome of an appeal or review. Almost no secondary source carries either. reg 17(3), 17(4)
- An enforcement order can be revokedOn application with reasons to the registrar’s satisfaction, or on application by the issuing authority. On revocation its consequences are cancelled, the register is updated and any surrendered document is returned. s.20(9), 20(10)
One thing to know before choosing instalments
An arrangement to pay in instalments forfeits the discount outright: the full penalty and the applicable fees become payable. A reader who takes instalments to make the amount manageable pays double what the discounted figure would have been.
Regulation 17(5)
The code on your notice
What the charge code is, and what this site can say about yours
The regulations organise every infringement into a numbered schedule with a fixed set of columns. This site holds the map of what those columns mean. It does not hold the schedule’s rows.
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| Column | What it holds | Established by |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charge code | AARTO Regulations, 2026, reg 20(2) |
| 3 | The activity determined to be an infringement or offence | reg 16(1) |
| 4 | Categorisation: infringement or offence | reg 16(1) |
| 5 | Penalty units | reg 16(2); Schedule 2 para 1 |
| 6 | Demerit points | reg 20(1) |
| 7 | Penalty amount (Rand) | reg 16(3); Schedule 2 para 2 |
| 8 | Discounted penalty amount (Rand) | reg 17(2); Schedule 2 para 3 |
| 9 | Operator charge under s.49 of the National Road Traffic Act | reg 20(2) |
From 30 June 2026 · AARTO Regulations, 2026, regulations 16, 17(2) and 20. THE GAP IN THIS TABLE IS DELIBERATE: one column is missing because no provision read in this pass establishes what it holds, and a column index is not an identifier. Inventing a meaning for it would be the exact defect this map exists to prevent.
So the code on your notice can be located in that structure — but the row it points at, and therefore the penalty units, the demerit points and the rand amount, is in a part of the gazette this site could not retrieve. What that means for you.
The charge book
The charge book is not published anywhere we can reach
The amounts, penalty units and demerit points for individual offences live in Schedule 3 to the AARTO Regulations, 2026. That schedule is published in later parts of the Government Gazette issue that carries the regulations, and those parts do not resolve from any source tried — the national government site, the AARTO sites and the public gazette archives alike. So this site does not hold the charge book, and it will not reproduce one from a third-party transcription: a per-offence amount copied off another website is exactly the kind of figure that is wrong for a year before anyone notices.
The amount for your own matter is printed on your own notice, and it is the binding one. What this site can tell you is how that amount is arrived at, what the discount does to it, and which fee attaches at which stage.
AARTO Regulations, 2026 (GN R.7646) Schedule 3 (parts 2-8 of GG 54922) — GG 54922 (Regulation Gazette), 30 June 2026, part 1 of 8
Verification status
Nobody has signed these figures off
Every value on this site is recorded as research: transcribed from the cited instrument, and not yet checked by the reviewer who is accountable for it. That is a statement about this site, not about the instruments. Where a figure decides something for you, read it against the citation printed beside it.