The 1 September date came and went
AARTO demerit points did not start on 1 September 2026. For more than a year that date was reported as the day South African drivers would begin collecting points against their licences. It passed on Tuesday, and no driver in the country is carrying points today.
What is running is the rest of AARTO: infringement notices, courtesy letters and enforcement orders, handled administratively by the Road Traffic Infringement Agency rather than through the criminal courts. That machinery went live in a batch of municipalities on 1 July 2026. The points are a separate switch, and it has not been flipped.
Where the date came from
Proclamations gazetted on 1 August 2025 set out a phased schedule that ended with the demerit-point sections of the AARTO Act taking effect on 1 September 2026. Those proclamations were withdrawn on 28 November 2025, after Transport Minister Barbara Creecy postponed the first phase from 1 December 2025 to 1 July 2026. The reasons given were unfinished training of law enforcement and back-office staff, systems in municipalities that had not been harmonised, and funding.
When replacement proclamations brought AARTO into force on 1 July 2026, they left the demerit-point sections out. Reports differ on whether the excluded provisions are sections 24 to 28 or sections 26 to 28 of the Act. The effect is the same either way: the points system was not commenced, and the RTIA has said the Minister of Transport will set a commencement date in due course. Reporting after the July rollout put the likely date in 2027. Nothing has been gazetted.
The 1 September date outlived the proclamation it came from, and it is still repeated in insurance blogs, driving guides and news copy. If you read this week that points had started, that is the source.
What is running right now
In the municipalities where AARTO is live, a traffic fine is an infringement notice from the RTIA instead of a summons. You have 32 days to act. Miss that window and a courtesy letter follows, which strips the discount and adds a fee. Miss the next 32 days and an enforcement order is issued, which blocks NaTIS from issuing you a driving licence, professional driving permit or vehicle licence disc until it is paid or revoked.
| Step or option | Value |
|---|---|
| Discount for paying within 32 days | 50% |
| Courtesy letter fee | R100 |
| Fee if a representation fails | R200 |
| Window to act on a notice or courtesy letter | 32 days |
| Window to appeal to the Appeals Tribunal | 30 days |
| RTIA target to process a representation | 21 working days |
| Instalment term, penalty up to R750 | 6 months |
| Instalment term, penalty above R750 | 12 months |
Fines issued before AARTO applied in your area stay under the Criminal Procedure Act until they are finalised. They carry no demerit points, but they are still payable.
How the points will work when they start
The RTIA has published the mechanics, and they have been stable across several years of delays. Every driver starts at zero. Points attach when a fine is paid, when an enforcement order is issued, or on conviction in court.
| Rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Threshold before disqualification | 15 points |
| Maximum points for an infringement | 5 |
| Maximum points for an offence after conviction | 6 |
| Suspension per point above the threshold | 3 months |
| Points removed per 3 infringement-free months | 1 |
| Points removed by a rehabilitation programme | 4 |
| Rehabilitation programmes permitted per 12 months | 1 |
| Exceedances before a licence is cancelled | 3 |
A driver on 17 points would face six months off the road. A third trip above the threshold cancels the licence rather than suspending it, and the driver has to sit the learner’s and driving tests again.
The 15-point question is not settled
The 15-point threshold comes from the RTIA’s own FAQ, which states it in several separate answers. The original 2008 AARTO Regulations set the threshold at 12. New regulations were published on 30 June 2026 alongside the Phase 2 proclamations, but because the demerit sections themselves were not commenced, it is not clear that any revised threshold in them is yet legally operative.
Treat 15 as the RTIA’s stated intention rather than settled law. The same caution applies to the FAQ generally: parts of it are years out of date, and one answer still describes the demerit system as “planned for 01 July 2022”.
What is worth doing now
Nothing about the delay makes an unpaid fine safer. Enforcement orders are being issued today, and they are what blocks your driving licence renewal and your disc.
- Check what is outstanding against your ID at aarto.gov.za, on the AARTO mobile app, or through the RTIA call centre on 086 122 7861.
- Make sure your address and contact details on NaTIS are current, because service of a notice starts the 32-day clock whether you collect it or not.
- If a notice is wrong, submit a representation on form AARTO 08 within the window rather than ignoring it.
- If you cannot pay in full, apply for instalments on form AARTO 04 before the deadline passes.
For the wider enforcement picture, see our coverage of the RTIA warning to licence holders, the new speeding fines system and the 10-year driving licence decision.
Where to check
The RTIA is the body that administers AARTO and the only source worth trusting on a start date. Its site is rtia.co.za and its fine-query service is at aarto.gov.za. A commencement date for the demerit points has to appear in a presidential proclamation in the Government Gazette before it means anything. Until it does, no date you read is real.
