The City of Cape Town’s (CoCT) new amended traffic by-law will now authorise traffic officers the power to impound vehicles of repeat offenders rather than continue giving fines.
CoCT believes the new by-law will benefit the justice system in assisting to alleviate the backlog in traffic-related court cases.
The amended by-law is set to be gazetted on Friday.
According to BusinessTech, in the case of a vehicle being impounded, the authorised official will issue a receipt to the driver containing the following information
- the current state of the vehicle
- the contents present within the vehicle
- where the vehicle will be held
- the process to be followed in order to release the vehicle.
Also read: What cheeky motorists should know about new impound laws
The South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) however, are not happy and has condemned the new amended traffic by-law, as reported by EWN.
Provincial chairperson of SANTACO, Mandla Hermanus feels that the new traffic by-laws will affect thousands of taxi drivers, most likely resulting in the taxi industry going out of business.
“we are very disappointed with the new by-laws and especially it seems they are targeting the taxi industry. I mean the taxi industry at the moment is taking a lot of strain.”
“Suddenly it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got an operating license or not, your vehicle will end up impounded,” says Hermanus.
For information on impoundment, click to visit the City of Cape Town’s website.
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Picture: Cape {town} Etc gallery