Traffic-fine dodgers denied services

Cape Town has adopted a " take no prisoners" approach to traffic-fine dodgers.

Motorists will be barred from accessing municipal services until their fines have been settled.

JP Smith, member of the Cape Town mayoral committee responsible for safety and security, said that, since instituting the "admin mark" system three months ago, there has been an increase in the number of motorists paying their fines.

Smith said the council had been forced to get tough "because a lot of the fines are simply written off" because of lack of staff in the municipality and at magistrate's courts.

There were not enough prosecutors, resulting in prosecutions for non-payment of traffic fines being removed from the court roll.

Cape Town has a traffic-fine payment rate of between 35% and 38% but Smith said the council was aiming to boost it to about 60%.

During the last financial year, Cape Town made just over R99-million from traffic fines.

The "admin mark" system is also in effect at the George, Swartland and Overstrand municipalities .

In Johannesburg, more than 2.4million fines - issued before June - were scrapped because they were not delivered by registered mail as required by the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act, otherwise known as Aarto.

Smith said the DA-led council had chosen a different route in collecting fines - using the eNatis system to track down defaulters.

"People will have to give proof of address when they want to renew their licence," said Smith.

But the registrar of the Road Traffic Management Agency, Jeff Chuwe, said both the Johannesburg and Tshwane municipalities had adopted a similar strategy.

"In Tshwane and Johannesburg, we use Aarto.

''If you have an outstanding infringement, you can't renew your licence.

"The National Traffic Act makes provision for municipalities not to serve those with outstanding [fines]," said Chuwe.

The Automobile Association's spokesman, Graeme Scala, welcomed the move but said that traffic authorities had to follow the letter of the lawwhen sending out an infringement notice.