Positive changes coming for all South African toll plazas
South African drivers using the country’s toll plazas will soon experience faster and more secure payment options.
By December 2025, almost every toll plaza in South Africa will accept tap-to-pay with bank cards and smart devices, speeding up and securing passage through plazas.
The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) told MyBroadband it will upgrade its 30 self-managed toll plazas to support contactless payments by the end of next year.
Sanral plans to begin a phased rollout and live testing in October or November 2025.
Toll plaza payments to become more secure
Contactless payments are not entirely new to South Africa’s highways.
The N3 Toll Concession (N3TC) and N4 Toll Route Concession (N4TRAC) completed their tap-to-pay rollouts in 2024, enabling all toll plazas between Johannesburg and Durban (N3) and Pretoria to Komatipoort (N4) to accept contactless payments.
The final and largest concession, Bakwena, is currently installing tap-to-pay terminals. Bakwena manages 15 toll plazas on the N1 between Pretoria and Mookgophong, and the N4 between Doornpoort and Swartruggens.
The company plans to activate the system in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The tap-to-pay rollout will allow drivers to use:
- Debit, cheque, and credit cards (except American Express, Diners Club, and RCS)
- Mobile wallets like Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, Samsung Wallet, as well as Garmin Wallet
The move aligns with upcoming banking regulations that will phase out magnetic stripe cards, which are vulnerable to skimming and cloning.
South African toll gates have been identified as hotspots for card fraud, making the switch to contactless payments both a safer and more convenient option.