Johannesburg - The Joburg metro police department is spending R9.5 million a month in postage sending out traffic fine notifications, but collects only R5.2m – and that’s in a good month.
And, with the post office strike stretching to close on three months, this figure is likely to dwindle to zero.
The City of Joburg budgeted for R464.3m a year in income from fines in its 2014/15 budget, or about R38.7m a month. In the previous financial year, it fell R250m short of the budget for fine collection.
JMPD spokesman chief superintendent Wayne Minnaar admitted that only 4 percent of fines were collected on Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) infringements. That’s the R5.2m collected on an average month.
The post office strike was having a major impact on the serving of any infringement notices that had to be sent by registered mail, he said.
“All infringements, courtesy letters and enforcement orders have to be sent by registered mail, and with the SA Post Office not fulfilling these legal functions, the JMPD is being financially hampered and is causing wasteful expenditure,” he said.
When the documents could not be sent to infringers to collect, the eNatis system’s “internal clock” – the time frames for issuing, printing and posting of infringements – did not stop, so non-delivery affected the infringers’ options to pay the discounted amount or to elect to appear in court, said Minnaar. Infringers could therefore plead that the legal process was not followed, he said.
STRIKE NOT STOPPING ENFORCEMENT
Minnaar said law enforcement had not been stopped by the JMPD despite the post office strike.
“Daily operations are ongoing and approximately 400 000 infringements are produced each month. Infringements are still uploaded onto eNatis and sent electronically to SA Post Office for printing and posting,” he said.
The cost of posting infringements by registered mail amounts to about R9.5m a month, but the JMPD is presently considering its options around this as it is deemed to be wasteful expenditure.
The JMPD has been holding “smart” roadblocks and roadside checkpoints where copies of Aarto infringements are served personally on the infringer.
Minnaar said the Road Traffic Infringement Agency had taken over the functions of the Road Traffic Management Corporation and some courtesy letters and enforcement orders had been sent out to motorists who did not comply by either paying the fine or opting to appear in court. In these cases, the renewal of vehicle licences can be stopped.
Another source told The Star that those courtesy letters and enforcement orders were issued only for hand-written fines and not camera-generated infringements.
The Star