The Department of Transport (DoT) is concerned that unpaid traffic fines is the leading cause of utter lawlessness on local roads.

In a recent letter, the DoT criticized the Department of Justice (DoJ) for withdrawing or cancelling traffic fines in the Dzanani, Thohoyandou, Vuwani, Louis Trichardt, Mutale and Messina Magistrate’s Courts. The DoT used strong language to describe how local court rooms “undermine the efforts of traffic officers without valid and justifiable reasons.”

According to the DoT, local prosecutors and magistrates misuse their power and discretionary authority by withdrawing traffic summonses. “The nature of offences and the amount of the summonses do not mean anything to the presiding officers. Their focus seems to be directed on one thing only; to undermine the efforts of saving lives by cancelling almost 90% of summonses issued by our traffic officers,” reads the letter.

This remark seems somewhat undeserved towards the DoJ, especially when the DoT later admits in the letter that their enquiries revealed that in Musina and Louis Trichardt, cases were struck from the court roll due the fact that fines issued to 80% of motorists on the N1 were for foreigners “who will not pay or attend the court proceedings even if they are traced.”

Furthermore, their enquiries revealed that presiding officers are overloaded with more serious criminal cases, therefore they are forced to compromise traffic cases due to constant backlogs on older criminal cases.

All the same, the DoT said they felt that neither of these arguments held any water.

Accompanying the letter was a breakdown of the 2014/15 financial year’s traffic summonses that were withdrawn, reduced or completely struck from the roll.

The Louis Trichardt Magistrate’s Court had, of all the courts, by far the highest number of traffic summonses struck from the roll totalling 6 269 (R3.42 million) cases for the 2014/15 financial year. In Musina, 1 291 (R584 480) cases were struck from the court roll. Vuwani had the third highest number of cases struck from the role with a total of 369 (R226 550). Dzanani and Mutale Magistrate’s Court respectively had a total of 171 (R105 800) and 20 (R8 400.00) cases struck from the roll.

Interestingly enough, when it came to traffic cases being withdrawn or cancelled, the Malamulele Magistrate’s Court (that was not named as a scapegoat) pulled in the highest numbers with a total of 875 (R324 390) being withdrawn during the course of the financial year. The court with the second highest number was the Vuwani Court with a total of 415 (R267 870) cases, followed by the Louis Trichardt court third with 279 (R163 520) cases. The Dzanani, Mutale and Messina court respectively had a total of 49 (R34 450), 108 (R50 100) and 34 (R18 450) cases.

The Vuwani Court was, however, the court that was the most lenient towards motorists. During the mentioned time period they reduced a total of 1 183 traffic fines to the value of R255 004 for the State’s account.

In Musina there was little mercy during the 2014/15 financial year. The court only reduced a total of 30 cases with a total value of R13 100.

The Dzanani, Louis Trichardt and Mutale Magistrate’s Court respectively reduced a total of 383 (R170 345), 226 (R103 950) and 128 (R37 920) cases throughout the year.