By Carvin Goldstone

Kwazulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate boss John Schnell is not in favour of proposals by the National Prosecuting Authority to write off unpaid traffic fines totalling millions of rands.

The prosecuting authority and Durban metro police have held brief discussions about the possibility of scrapping all unpaid fines issued prior to July 2003.

The move is intended to be an incentive for offenders who will have to only pay fines incurred after that period. The metro police are facing an administrative nightmare, with R457 544 200 of fines outstanding and 111 999 warrants of arrest issued. The National Prosecuting Authority has the authority to cancel the fines if the metro police support a proposal in favour of such a decision.

The metro police has been asked by National Prosecuting Authority Provincial Deputy Director Ross Stuart to submit such a proposal to the judiciary. Stuart said he was waiting for the metro police to indicate if the debt write-off should be implemented and how it should be handled.

'I cannot support the fines write-off because it does not deter offenders'

“The fine backlog is not really a problem from our side because it’s more of an administrative function of the Durban metro police. Durban metro must come forward and say they want to withdraw the fines,” he said. However, Schnell criticised the proposal and said he would not support the write-off.

“Professionally and personally I cannot support the fines write-off because it does not deter offenders. Instead, it will lead to people repeating offences without learning from their crimes.

“I am not sure what the aim of this proposed write-off is except to clear the administration backlog,” he said. He could not accept that people with outstanding fines could walk free without atoning for their offences.

“I am not sure that the department of transport will approve of this move,” he said. Schnell said the National Prosecuting Authority would also have to approach the provincial treasury for approval before it could make a decision.

Durban’s City Manager, Michael Sutcliffe, said the city had not received any documentation from the National Prosecuting Authority on the proposal. He said the write-off had not been confirmed with city management.

Metro police cannot reduce or withdraw fines

“I don’t know what the proposal is, but we are always willing to welcome methods that will encourage people to pay existing debts,” he said.

However, Stuart said the suggestion had been mentioned to Sutcliffe, but the city manager had not made any contribution to the proposal. Metro police spokesperson Alex Wright said the scrapping of fines debts had taken place in Johannesburg and Cape Town but, until now, nothing similar had been done in Durban. He said the metro police had not taken any decision on the proposed fine write-off.

“As far as we know, there are no discussions at the moment, but there have been brief discussions with the National Prosecuting Authority,” he said.

Wright said the backlog had arisen as a result of difficulties in tracing offenders who had either given false names or had moved and had not notified the authorities.

He said police were dependent on roadblocks and random vehicle checks for which they used car registration numbers and identity numbers to find evasive offenders. Wright said motorists who had problems paying their fines were welcome to talk to the police, but added that the metro police could not reduce or withdraw fines.

• This article was originally published on page 2 of The Mercury on January 11, 2006

Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-01-11 08:38:00