The City has put a number of methods in place to track down motorists with outstanding fines, including Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology, roaming patrols, roadblocks, and traffic officers going door-to-door.
This is part of the Sustainable Warrant operation launched by the City in February this year, which has been seeing results, with more motorists owning up to their outstanding warrants for unpaid fines.
The operation has seen more resources devoted to Operation Reclaim, which aims to clear a backlog of warrants for traffic offences and hold more motorists accountable in order to drive behavioural changes and reduce motor vehicle accidents and resultant fatalities.
In the operation’s first four weeks until March 26 2019, traffic officers have:
‘The statistics are extremely encouraging. If we’re able to sustain the pace of the operation, road safety and courteous driving can only improve going forward. We indicated at the start of this operation that it is not about arresting motorists, but about getting them to attend to their fines and warrants. We have stayed true to this undertaking as only a fraction of the motorists who have been apprehended have been taken into custody,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
The Cape Town Traffic Service has also noted an increase in the number of motorists visiting driving licence testing centres to enquire about and settle outstanding warrants since the start of the operation. An increase has also been observed in the number of administration marks that have been removed from the National Traffic Information System (NaTIS).
The administration mark was introduced several years ago to prevent motorists from conducting transactions on the NATIS Online Booking Licence Services, like renewing vehicle licences or driving licences if they had warrants for unpaid traffic fines.
Locals can check the status of fines or warrants by registering on www.paycity.co.za and pay the fines online if they so choose.
The City offers a number of other payment options too, which you can see here.
Picture: The City of Cape Town
