Eastern Cape officials rack up over R1m in traffic fines

The Eastern Cape government has more than R1m in outstanding traffic fines for state-owned vehicles.

Provincial transport MEC Weziwe Tikana revealed this in a written reply to DA member of the provincial legislature Marshall von Buchenroder on November 8. The fines from April 2016 to the start of November this year totalled R1.14m. The total for 2016/17 was R394,050, R406,737 for 2017/18 and R339,900 in 2018/19.

On September 30 this year, the provincial government had 3,154 operational vehicles.

Tikana said traffic cops could often not identify the drivers of the cars so fines would then be issued to the Government Fleet Management Services (GFMS) which would try to find the liable drivers.

Tikana said: "Fines are the responsibility of the drivers and as such when fines are paid by GFMS, departments are then invoiced for the departments to claim from the responsible driver."

Tikana said GFMS also owes the Road Traffic Management Agency (RTMC) R39,993 for infringements that had been cleared from the electronic national administration traffic information system (eNaTIS).

Von Buchenroder considers the fines fruitless and wasteful expenditure which "shows complete disregard for law and order".

"With departmental budgets under pressure, this wasteful expenditure is irresponsible and an additional expense the province should not be footing at this time."