Last Wednesday was not my best day. I went to the Post Office and waited in the queue to pick up an AARTO Infringement Notice. It's the fancy name for a traffic fine. The incident took place on the 15th January, and the notice was posted on 2nd February. It arrived in my post box on 19th March. Well done SA Post Office! Really speedy delivery for a State Owned Enterprise.
But wait, there's more! The notice says I must pay within 32 days, ie. on 6th March, even through I finally received the notice on 19th March. If not, then the fine doubles from R125 to R250. So I log in to FNB banking and look for the notice under their nifty "Pay Traffic Fines" section. Not found. So I look for "AARTO" under "Public Recipients". Not found. So I emailed "enquiries@aartosa.co.za" as instructed on the notice:
Dear AARTO
I tried to pay infringement notice no 02-4099-xxxxxxxxxxxxx via FNB.
Firstly, I received the notice dated 02-Feb-2021 a week ago from the Post Office.
Secondly, the notice doesn’t appear on FNB’s “Pay Traffic Fines” search, either on my ID number or the infringement notice no.
Thirdly, a search for AARTO in the FNB Public recipients list failed.
Finally, your banking details do not appear on the notice.
If you would like me to pay the fine, please send me the required banking details so I can pay.
Thanks in advance,
Donn Edwards
Naturally, the email bounced: "Unrouteable address". We can't expect anything organised by the ANC government to actually work.
So I tried dialling 086 122 7861, which
TrueCaller identifies as RTIA. Of course all the operators are busy, so I decided to do a
Google search for RTIA as well. That eventually led me to
www.rtia.co.za/faq.php:
Cash payments can be made at
- ABSA
- Post office
- Relevant issuing authorities; and
- Checkers, Shoprite, SPAR, Usave
- Makro, Game, Builders Warehouse
Online payment can be made through
- FNB
- Standard Bank
- ABSA
- www.payfine.co.za
- www.aarto.gov.za
After waiting for 8 minutes on the phone I decided to hang up. Neither AARTO nor RTIA is listed as a public recipient by FNB, and the www.aarto.gov.za site mentioned another site called
www.paycity.co.za. They had my infringement number and the photo above. I used it to pay R125 plus R10 service fee using my credit card.
Why am I beginning to get the feeling that the ANC government is essentially a failed state?
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