Discount traffic fines coming

Author: Cobus Claasen

Pretoria - From early next year Pretoria's residents will be given a 50% discount if they pay their traffic fines within 32 days.

Thabo Tsholetsane, acting executive head of the Road Transport Management Corporation (RTMC) said on Monday that motorists would even be allowed the option of paying off their fines in instalments.

These are some of the benefits of the RTMC's pilot project for the jacaranda city, due to be launched early in 2008.

The penalty points system is also a part of the project.

The system involves a number of penalty points for every infringement of the rules of the road.

If motorists collect too many penalty points, their driver's licences will eventually be revoked.

Tsholetsane says the big discount on fines that'll be offered to motorists won't necessarily have a major influence on the traffic department's revenues.

"We didn't really take that into account. In any case, it's not about the money it's about punishing a motorist for a traffic infringement. The project does offer enough incentive, though, for people to pay their traffic fines more readily."

He says it will also ease the administrative burden on the courts, because far fewer summonses will have to be issued.

"Depending on how the system fares in Pretoria, it will be rapidly disseminated to other areas. It's not yet clear which cities and provinces will be the next in line."