More Cape Town drivers with unpaid fines end up in jail

Cape Town is cracking down on drivers who ignore unpaid traffic fines.

The city has issued 100,000 warrants for unpaid fines and contempt of court in the previous financial year, and put 40,321 motorists behind bars — an increase of 36.2% year-on-year.

Motorists can settle a fine when they have received the infringement notice. Alternatively, they have the option to go to court on a specified date in the infringement notice to state their case. Failure to do so results in a summons being issued, and continued non-compliance sees a warrant of arrest being generated for contempt of court.

“There are many motorists who take responsibility for their actions and pay their fines timeously, and we thank them. Then there are those for whom fine payment is perhaps more of a challenge, whether it be the process of paying, or perhaps financial reasons,” said MMC for safety & security JP Smith.

“But we also need to accept that there are some motorists who simply do not want to pay. They have no regard for law and order, rack up infringements on a regular basis, and are very confident that they will not be caught. They are the reason we have a top 100 offenders list.

“The processes our traffic officers have to abide by do make it tricky to execute warrants, but I think that scofflaws should sit up and take note of these statistics, because the odds of being caught are shifting.”

Between July 2022 and June 2023, the city's traffic service executed 95,710 warrants, he said. While this was slightly down on the warrants executed in the previous year, the number of motorists arrested increased from 29,592 to 40,321.

Traditionally, warrant executions relied on tracking and tracing operations. However, with the introduction of handheld EPIC devices several years ago, officers are now able to check during a routine traffic stop whether a motorist has outstanding warrants.

The rollout of Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology also allows officers to scan licence plates on the go, to check for outstanding warrants or other infringements.

“We also use the ANPR technology at roadblocks and vehicle checkpoints, and generally, there is an increase in roadblocks as part of our festive season road safety efforts, so please settle your fines and make arrangements for outstanding warrants. It pays to be proactive, instead of being caught on the back foot,” said Smith.

Motorists can check whether they have fines or warrants by visiting www.paythat.co.za.

In July, Cape Town announced it was cracking the whip on the city's top 100 traffic offenders who collectively owe more than R9m in unpaid fines. The top offender had 268 warrants valued at just under R300,000. In September a minibus taxi driver was arrested in Cape Town with 59 outstanding traffic fines valued at R178,900.

The city has a specialised team tracking down warrant dodgers, at times having to resort to stakeouts to catch the culprits.

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