Pay Traffic Fines Or Else

Lycanthrope

Lycanthrope

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If you don’t pay traffic fines, your assets will be seized

Rogue drivers who dodge paying their traffic fines will have their furniture and other movable assets confiscated and sold by the state.

The director-general of the national transport department, Mpumi Mpofu, said: “If the infringer does not pay, the sheriff can seize and sell the movable property of the infringer.”

This is just one of the measures introduced yesterday at the launch of the administrative adjudication of road traffic offences pilot project, in Tshwane. The project is intended to help law enforcement officers reduce the road carnage that claims the lives of more than 10000 people a year.

Repeat traffic offenders will have their driver’s licences suspended or cancelled, and they will be penalised in their standing in the point-demerit system.

South Africa has one of the highest road death tolls in the world — 31.8 road deaths per 100000 people every year, compared to 6.7 for Britain, 11.3 for Australia and 15.4 for the US.

Mpofu said the administrative adjudication of road traffic offences would end the non-payment of traffic fines, currently at more than 80percent, and reduce the traffic court case load, which stretches to 2010.

People who fail to pay after being issued with a warrant of execution will have to pay the full amount of the fine together with an administration fee and the fee of the sheriff for issuing the warrant.

Mpofu said the new system will also benefit those who pay their fines, in the form of an “automatic 50percent discount if payment is made within the first 32 days”. Fines can be paid in instalments.

Transport Minister Jeff Radebe complained that most accidents were the result of bad driving and that the greatest challenge was to change the attitudes and behaviour of motorists.

He said: “The estimated cost of deaths and injuries as a result of road accidents is now R43-billion [a year].

‘‘We have committed ourselves to halving accidents by 2015.

“We can no longer tolerate irresponsible behaviour on our roads.”

The project is expected to be implemented within the next 12 months to coincide with the introduction of the points demerit system.
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Source: The Times

I think it's a pretty good initiative - or at least I can't find anything wrong with it. People that speed annoy the bejebus out of me - in the same way people who sit on your butt on a highway do. In my opinion it's reckless and careless even if it's "only" 150km/h on an open highway. You never know if you'll look away for a second for some reason only to look up and see a tortoise or animal scamper across the road, which could lead to a number of outcomes - none of them pleasant.

Anyway, for those who have traffic fines outstanding and don't feel like standing in a queue to pay them:

www.payfine.co.za
www.labattraffic.com
www.trafficzone.co.za

Apparently you're also able to view the offending photo :)
 
I agree. I hope that the computer devices they will use to check the license will also log the scans. In that way it will not possble to bribe the cop after the license check. Statistical analysis of the tickets written for other offenses, no lights, bad tyres, could also reveal who is in the take.
Will "forgetting" your license at home be treated the same as having no license?

It should improve road behaviour quite a bit. One parking ticket every 3 months will just about keep your score level. Get more than that, add a few speeding fines, and you will find yourself walking pretty soon.
Unfortunately, it will not do much to the guys who sit on your tail.
 
Im wondering about the whole sherrif thing. Say you only have your car in your name and you get a R100 fine that you don't pay... What they gonna confiscate? Your R100 000 car?
 
supersunbird said:
Im wondering about the whole sherrif thing. Say you only have your car in your name and you get a R100 fine that you don't pay... What they gonna confiscate? Your R100 000 car?
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It does not sound like that - it sounds like any other unpaid debt.
In other words, goods will be attached to cover what is outstanding.
Anyways - I have ZERO problem with this, on one condition (only one little condition):
When I renew my annual license disk, the field showing outstanding fines MUST be correct. If I pay my license disk, and that field said "Zero" then it is not my fault if I have outstanding fines and did not know.

Basically this will mean that either you pay those fines before you get a new disk, or you do not pay and have no disk. In short, only people who have not paid their annual license fee are "eligible" to have a "sheriff visit".
 
Yea
People who fail to pay after being issued with a warrant of execution will have to pay the full amount of the fine together with an administration fee and the fee of the sheriff for issuing the warrant.
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Thought they just wanted to make the roads safe?... Whats next ? Paying a fee because they got nice hair ?.. :\
 
Do they still send letters in the post reminding you to pay?
 
This stuff makes me so angry, crime is rampant but no.. The focus is always on what can collect money. So, my question is. Will they start sending the fines out with registered mail? As they cannot prove that the normal post arrives at the correct destination.
 
Talking about long distance travelling: I would be a lot more amenable to paying my speeding tickets if the various local authorities did not suddenly reduce the speed limit with the express purpose of setting up a camera and catching you doing, say, 78 in a 60 zone. I try not to speed and I watch out for the signs like a hawk but I still get nicked a R100 here, R200 there.

But guys who pass me doing 180? Never seen one of them being caught. No speed traps on the open road. You have to be naive to think it is about road safety, it is about collecting money. Any one who travels the N2 will agree with me.
 
Didn't they try this kind of thing awhile ago with Drunk drivers and confiscating their cars?

(I know the whole situation is different, but still that little initiative was shot down in the courts, I somehow think this one will be too at the end of the day)
 
Well it would be nice if they sent you the fine how are you meant to know that you have fines if they never reach you, I received one the other day from last year April which I had no clue I had!!!!!!
 
Oh yawn .. transport Minister Jeff Radebe thinks that an idiot driving @ 120km/h on a bad road surface towards a broken robot is not dangerous.

THIS MAN IS SIMPLY GATHERING CASH FOR BONUS TIME!

Is the money he is going to steal from us for traveling on our own roads not enough? :sick:

Cleaning up the speeding fine payment system will simply add money to the coffers and ... REMEMBER .. we still have the right to have our day in court. The sherrif cannot attach assets until the WARRANT is issued, which can only happen AFTER the court case, which can only happen AFTER the SUMMONS!

Why doesn't he (Minister of Transport) fine:
- the people who are responsible for the "robots not working" problem that occurs every flipping day?
- the people that are responsible for painting the roads after the lines have faded beyond rain-visibility?
- the people who maintain the road surface for every pothole not repaired per month?
- the people who place distracting adverts on the side of the road?
- the vehicle manufacturers who still insist on producing vehicles that don't have ABS?

I have yet to be issued a summons, never mind a flipping warrant.

This is a pathetic attempt to distract us from the fact that this minister is clearly not interested in creating a safe environment to commute in.

:mad:
 
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Kim_Webchick said:
Well it would be nice if they sent you the fine how are you meant to know that you have fines if they never reach you, I received one the other day from last year April which I had no clue I had!!!!!!
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As I said, the license renewal form must be correct.
I also am gravely suspicious of people who claim to "never get the fines because they always get lost" but magically get their renewal disks....
 
It is all about making money.. nothing else. Notice how anything to do with making money is streamlined and efficient in SA (SARS, Rates and taxes, traffic fines, etc..) but when it comes to service delivery the wheels have fallen off....

It has never ever been about road safety. If it was then a very different scenario would be before us today.
 
stoke said:
This is a pathetic attempt to distract us form the fact that this minister is clearly not interested in creating a safe environment to commute in.

:mad:
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BS!

People driving like ****tards on our roads are responsible for 1000's of road deaths every year.
And besides - if people just obeyed the rules, then there would be no money to be made, neh?

I am gatvol of being bullied and endangered on the roads every bleeding day by people who have no right to be behind the wheel.
 
Moederloos : You are right to a point, but then so is stoke...

Living in Durban I OFTEN see speed cameras in areas that are NOT high-accident zones, or where they have arbitrarily changed the speed limit down a bit and are now obviously good cash-cows for the municipality.
 
I OFTEN see speed cameras in areas that are NOT high-accident zones, or where they have arbitrarily changed the speed limit down a bit and are now obviously good cash-cows for the municipality.
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They are doing this all over the West Rand in JHB... especially in places that provide dense trees for them to hide with their cameras. Down to a ridiculous 60km/h
 
Moederloos said:
BS!

People driving like ****tards on our roads are responsible for 1000's of road deaths every year.
And besides - if people just obeyed the rules, then there would be no money to be made, neh?

I am gatvol of being bullied and endangered on the roads every bleeding day by people who have no right to be behind the wheel.
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Is SPEEDING an example of a person driving like a ****tard?

Or .. is the reality that a person changing lanes without looking because of a freaking hole in the road more of a danger?

You've got to ask yourself why it is that there are more accidents in the rain than when it's dry and visibility is good. It's because the environment is dangerous.

Nevermind .. I know the correct answer is both. :D
 
The TDS would like to take this opportunity to thank Moederloos, alloytoo, Killove and Turiko for their valuable contribution to our society's endearing efforts. To qualify for prizes, you must register as a fully fledged member of the TDS though...
 
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