City councillors with outstanding arrest warrants for traffic fines, including a mayoral committee member, have had three months to settle their debts.
Other drivers with warrants are being traced to their homes or nabbed at roadblocks. When caught, they must either pay the fines immediately or spend a night in jail.
However, the city has denied that councillors are receiving “special treatment”.
During a council meeting last week, speaker Dirk Smit said that there were 15 councillors with warrants of arrests for traffic fines earlier this year. Eight had sorted the matter out with traffic services.
“There are still seven left, and one had nine warrants.”
Smit said he would meet with officials from city traffic services on August 8.
The city’s safety and security department was asked how much the councillors owed and why they had not been arrested. This department spearheaded the arrest of two city councillors with outstanding warrants for unpaid fines last year.
But JP Smith, the mayoral committee member for the safety and security, referred all queries back to Smit’s office.
Smit said he was not certain how much the offending councillors owed, but said his office took the matter very seriously.
“You cannot disobey the laws of the country… you can’t help make laws and then break them yourself.”
Smit said August 8 was ‘D-day’ and councillors had until then to pay the fines or “justice would take its course”.
“No councillor is entitled to special treatment.”
“I f a traffic officer stops one of them in road tomorrow, they can arrest them. That has nothing to do with me,” said Smit.
The councillors are from the DA, the ANC and Cope. And even a mayoral committee member is among those with outstanding warrants.
A year ago, city traffic services arrested two Cape Town councillors for their outstanding warrants. The DA’s Clement Mhlanga and the ANC’s Amos Komeni were arrested. And the city also released the names of another seven councillors who had outstanding warrants for their unpaid fines. Some of the councillors outed during the 2011 operation still have outstanding warrants against their names.
The city is also investigating allegations of drunken driving against one of it’s executive directors. At this stage, the city is not releasing further details.
“At this stage, these are just allegations. We cannot confirm that he broke the law.” - Cape Argus