Cape Town traffic fine dodgers are in for a surprise, and not one of the good variety either. You may have heard about, or even gone through the rather large roadblock that spanned the Buitengracht exit from town before the N1 and N2 split on Sunday. Operation Reclaim intensifies: officers are planning a crackdown in the next few weeks.

The Cape Argus has reported that Cape Town traffic officers are going to be visiting offenders’ homes and offices to collect unpaid fines in the coming weeks.

Those that either cannot pay up or have outstanding warrants of arrest in their name, will be arrested. Motorists that attempt to evade roadblocks face possible automatic number plate recognition vehicles chasing them down.

This is no laughing matter friends, nearly half a million of us Cape Town motorists have warrants out for our arrest for our unpaid traffic fines; 446 232 to use numerals.

We owe a whopping R200 million in outstanding fines in fact. Together that makes up about a third of the more than 1.4 million fines totalling approximately R592m that traffic officials are seeking to collect.

Traffic Services Chief Inspector Merle Lourens:

We are planning a special roadblock that will last for the entire week, concentrating on major roads that lead into and out of town.

People are encouraged to pay their outstanding fines and to check whether they have warrants attached to their names and to sort these out before we hit the roads next week.

She explained that the past three months had netted 2 247 outstanding warrants at roadblocks leading to a total of R2.6m in unpaid fines.

Here’s how bad we really are:

Traffic Services issued 1 296 speeding fines in just one weekend. Between January and March, the city recorded an average of 20 000 speeding cases a week.

11 000 drivers countrywide have been arrested for drunk driving since the beginning of the year and 510 in the Western Cape alone.

Lourens encouraged motorists to settle outstanding fines as soon as possible so as to avoid unnecessary legal action being brought against them.

She also explained what the process would be should you be caught with an outstanding warrant: during the week, you are taken to court. Over weekends offenders are booked in at the police station and face a possible overnight stay.

Motorists who have outstanding fines, but no warrants, can pay their fines at roadblocks using instant payment machines.

Western Cape traffic spokesman Harold Williams reiterated the matter of drunk driving:

We are going to increase our operations and tighten the screws on drunk drivers. We are very serious about eradicating this problem in the Western Cape.

If you think you have any outstanding fines you should call 0860 034 637.

You have been warned.

[Source: Argus]