City to strengthen interventions on traffic fine dodgers

Melon Radebe

3 August 2015

The City of Cape Town has strengthened interventions to target scofflaws who dodge their traffic fines.

This comes after traffic fine income has increased from just under R100 million in 2012/13 to more than R200 million in 2014/15.

Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith said Fine collection rates across the country are a major headache and that is why the City decided to take action.

''It is imperative that the City pursue the scofflaw people who get fines but ignore them or manage to evade them,” Smith said.

Over the last few years, specifically the last two years, the City has implemented a package of interventions to ensure that people who are fined are held accountable.

Smith spoke about how they went about the interventions. “The Operation Reclaim plan that we are running where we pursue people with an outstanding warrant, the license plate recognition camera that we use, and dashboard cameras as well as the bulk sms.”