[siteorigin_widget class=”WP_Widget_Media_Image”]

Over the last few years, fines have almost doubled in price, in the Western Cape, where other provinces have remained reasonable. The Western Cape decided to create its own Traffic Law Enforcement Code Book where the rest of the country runs on the Criminal Procedure act or AARTO. On this basis, we can see a remarkable difference in fine amounts for the same offence in different cities.

After having a look it’s clear as daylight, the Western Cape has exorbitant fine prices compared to other areas, with some fines being more than triple in value. Make sure you are getting value for your already stretched rand, compare multiple car insurance providers to make sure you aren’t paying too much:compare car insurance with The Panda

Taxi’s Should Get The Same Love As Trucks

At weigh bridges trucks are stopped where each portion of the truck will be weighed and should it come up above the legal weight, the driver/ company will be fined based on the percentage the weight is out. Why is this not enforced for those ridiculously crammed taxi’s or overloaded bakkies? Shouldn’t taxi’s be stopped at certain points on all roads to make sure they get the same love as trucks. In South Africa it’s a wellknown joke to see if you can count how many people are squashed into one taxi, but if you really think about it, should this be something we see get used to?

Fine Worthy Or Excessive?

Driving unroadworthy vehicles is another Western Cape favourite fine. If you are caught in a situation where you cannot produce your roadworthy certificate, you can be fined, on top of that, if the vehicle is obviously unroadworthy, like some of the taxis that are more duct tape than metal, your fine can jump up to a sky-high R3000. Then you get the smartypants that will still go ahead and continue to drive the road wreck, if caught again, after being fined and reprimanded, the fine will have an additional R3500 added to it.

cape town vs joburg fine costs

Looking Into Some Ridiculous Differences

When looking at the differences in fine pricing between the WC and Pretoria/Tshwane or Johannesburg, there are severe differences. You could say this due to different priorities held in the different provinces. When looking at the offence of driving without your licence on your person you can see a stark difference. This leaves one wondering why? Is it because driving without a licence is seen as not as severe elsewhere? In the WC the fine is R2000 wherein JHB it’s R1250?

Another startling difference is that of driving an unroadworthy vehicle, a fine of R3000 would be issued in the WC yet in JHB a mere R1000 max fine would be received. This could be written up to the fact that the fines are drawn up based on different systems, but should there not be some form of uniformity based on the fact that our governments should have the same goals and reasons for fine amounts? Just because you are being ripped off by your government doesn’t mean you have to be ripped off by your car insurance provider too, get a quote to compare :car insurance quotes comparison in south africa

On one hand one could debate that the WC has the right idea having higher fines, thinking that it would cause people to be more cautious on the roads and not take chances as they can’t afford these fines, yet, on the other hand, one could say that they wouldn’t really be phased because they would simply not pay the fine and find a way out?

Another fair point is that, based on the “money-making scheme” debate foundation, has the WC heightened their fines based on the premise that they are trying to make more money by issuing more fines at heightened amounts in the hope that it will boost their revenue? Either way, the WC has raised fine amounts at an excessive rate since 2014 and it makes you wonder how much more it will go up before someone steps in to remedy it? 

We would love to hear what you have to say, please leave us a comment in the comment box below.

Have you read our article:Best & Worst Insurance Companies In South Africa Exposed?best and worst insurance companies in South Africa

Read more button MoneyPanda