CRACKING WHIP ON ERRANT DRIVERS

• Cape Argus
• Murray Williams STAFF WRITER

221 000 warrants of arrest issued against city motorists

DRIVERS in Cape Town who have failed to pay their fines, and then also ignored warrants of arrest, may have got away with it in the past. But this loophole is about to be tightly closed.

The Cape Argus has learned that as many as 221 000 warrants of arrest have been issued against Cape Town drivers.

Collectively, they have unpaid fines totalling R489 million for contempt of court, which are issued when original fines are not paid. This figure excludes the combined worth of the original fines themselves, which run into a further figure of hundreds of millions of rand.

The City of Cape Town’s traffic department said the estimate was given by Syntell, a city service provider.

The 221 000 warrants of arrest are estimated to involve about 50 000 Cape Town drivers.

But because of the scale of the backlog, only the worst offenders – those who have racked up the highest number of outstanding warrants of arrest – are being actively sought.

To end this lawlessness by drivers who routinely do not pay, the traffic department has warned that tens of thousands of Cape Town drivers may be barred from renewing their driver’s licences, or vehicle licences, until they have paid up their fines attached to their outstanding warrants of arrest.

This will be done by the introduction of “admin marks” – made against their names on the electronic eNatis database. This will in future alert admin clerks that these drivers would be required to first settle these contempt of court fines, before they can be issued with renewed driver’s or vehicle licences.

Asked when the system was due to kick in, the department’s Frank Lock said: “We have already implemented the admin mark on drivers that have been contacted to come see us and did not.”

These were typically worst offenders, including car rental companies and taxi owners.

The next step is for these admin marks to appear immediately next to the name of everyone with an outstanding warrant of arrest. This will be introduced with all new warrants of arrest issued.

Lock explained the requirements for motorists who had admin marks against their name: “They have to settle all outstanding warrants of arrest, as the due process of notices/ summonses has already taken place. Only once we have seen the finalisation, the receipt, do we take the admin mark off the name (on the eNatis) system.

If drivers cannot pay, they risk being arrested and detained until they appear in court, in line with the warrants for their arrest.

Drivers who can pay on the spot must also settle their original admission-of-guilt fines for their original offences, but will not be arrested for these fines. The original fines still have to be paid – with the threat of new warrants of arrest if they are not paid timeously.