A resident of Makhado (Louis Trichardt), Mr Ebrahim Lakhana, feels as if he was robbed after he was forced to pay a single traffic fine twice.

In his possession he holds two identical receipts which he received upon paying the same amount twice for a traffic fine issued by the provincial traffic department's office in town.

Lakhana said his driver was stopped and given a R700 fine for worn tyres on 22 October. The fine was paid the same day for which a receipt was issued. However, on 27 November, Lakhana was arrested by the same traffic officer.

“He said I had failed to pay the fine issued on 22 October,” said Lakhana. “I explained to him that I had paid the fine on the very day it was issued and that I had a receipt at my house as proof of payment, but it seemed he did not understand me.”

Lakhana was escorted to the provincial traffic department’s office in town and detained from around 10:00 until after 14:00. During his detention, he repeatedly informed the officers that he had paid the fine and asked if they would allow him to go fetch his receipt. They refused to allow him to do so.

He was eventually allowed to leave when he again paid for the ticket. Afterwards he was told to write a letter to the department, asking for a refund since he said he was not satisfied with the whole process.

“They said it might take about seven weeks before I could get my money back,” said Lakhana.

The head of the Roads and Transport department's office in town, Ms Shumani Lavhengwa, declined giving any explanation as to why Lakhana was forced to apparently pay for the same ticket twice. She said the newspaper should contact the provincial office for any media inquiries regarding this case.

When the Zoutpansberger contacted the provincial spokesperson for the Department of Roads and Transport, Mr Joshua Kwapa, he advised the paper to send him an email explaining exactly what had happened. A detailed email was sent to him on 5 December and several telephonic follow-up calls were made to him after he had neither acknowledged nor responded to the email.

Kwapa was informed that Lakhana needed to understand why he was not given the opportunity to collect his receipt as proof of payment and the reason why the system was not updated to reflect that the warrant was paid. Lakhana also feels that it would be unfair of him to try and recover the money of the duplicate payment at his own expense, because the traffic department is to blame and not him.

After many attempts to elicit a response from the department, Kwapa said on Tuesday that he wouldn't be able to answer at that stage since he was sick. “I am not feeling well,” he said. “I am not going to the office. Send me your phone numbers and I will see what I can do,” Kwapa said.