The Eastern Cape Department of Transport is losing hundreds of millions of rands of potential revenue from traffic fines that have not been collected.
In response to a parliamentary question, MEC for Transport, Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe, revealed that R198 119 384 million was still outstanding for fines issued in the province over the last three financial years.
Over the same period, 216 177 fines were issued, and just a minute amount of R32 547 was collected.
The monetary value of traffic fines issued by the Department of Transport is as follows:
- 2018/19: Total fines issued is 93 522 and monetary value is R82 788 368 million of which R10 925 was collected;
- 2019/20: Total fines issued is 89 900 and monetary value is R82 261 799 million of which R11 116 was collected;
- 2020/21: Total fines issued is 32 755 and monetary value is R33 101 764 million of which R10 506 was collected.
See: IQP response
It is clear from these figures that the traffic law enforcement system is broken!
Offenders are being allowed to break the law with absolutely no consequence. They don’t pay their fines, and nothing happens to them.
Offenders need to be traced and demands must be issued for outstanding fines. Their ability to renew licenses must be frozen and warrants of arrest must be issued for those who do not pay.
Roadblocks need to be daily occurrences, across the province, not just twice a month.
We need to remember that those who have been issued fines have broken laws that have been put in place to ensure the safety of our road users.
The continuous failure by the Department to collect outstanding revenues is also jeopardising the Department’s ability to provide much-needed services.
With an additional R198 million the Department of Transport could do the following:
- Employ additional traffic officers in order to fully implement the much needed 24-hour traffic law enforcement;
- Pay overtime to law enforcement offices;
- Purchase additional vehicles for law enforcement.
This additional revenue could also be used towards addressing some of the maintenance backlogs on our provincial roads.
Previous amnesty periods have yielded no results. We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.
The carrot has not worked, it is time for the stick. I challenge the MEC to take action against these offenders and bring law and order back to our provincial roads.