The City of Cape Town’s Traffic Service crushes vehicles that are left abandoned by the owners, at it’s impound facilities annually. This helps to ease the Traffic Service’s administrative load. Impound facilities have limited space available and the crushing of abandoned vehicles allows for more parking space for impounded vehicles.
In terms of Regulation
320 of the National Road Traffic Act, the City’s Traffic Service can dispose of
vehicles left abandoned at its impound lots for longer than 21 days.
However, vehicles that
are not viable for the road or not roadworthy, are disposed of by a service
provider, and are crushed and compacted. Some vehicles can also be sold on
auction.
Recently, The City of
Cape Town’s Traffic Service crushed 73 vehicles.
‘We have seen an
increase in the number of vehicles impounded for various transgressions in
recent months. This includes public transport vehicles, where the driver or
owner is not able to produce a valid operating permit. As a result, our pounds
at Maitland and Ndabeni are constantly faced with capacity challenges. The
inability or refusal to pay impoundment fees often result in unroadworthy
vehicles being abandoned. Also, in some instances, the owners or drivers are
habitual offenders who have a history of fines, many of them unpaid. So the
crushing is a last resort, but much needed to free up space in our pounds,’
said Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith.
By Danielle Mentoor
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