Two of every three traffic fines issued by the City of Cape Town are never paid as drivers laugh off their fines.
The city announced on Sunday it was pursuing the “100 worst traffic offenders” who between them have 8369 outstanding arrests warrants against their names for fines totalling R5 854 100.
But the total figure of unpaid fines by drivers who simply ignore their traffic fines is a whopping R300 million.
Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said the lack of payment was due to chronic “untraceability” of drivers.
“As things stand, summonses have to be physically served on the person.”
Smith said: “One of the biggest frustrations is serving summonses on offenders with outstanding warrants - often the summons service is turned away and told the person is not home.
“The problem really is the law. We should just be able to serve the summons on your home and that should be sufficient. That’s the proposal I’ve made to the provincial transport MEC - that he engage national government about that,” he said.
The second tool to tackle fined drivers was the eNatis “admin mark”, which is recorded on the electronic eNatis database against the names of drivers with outstanding warrants of arrest, and which appears when they try to renew their vehicle licences - obliging them to first pay their fines. - Cape Argus