DEAR Editor,-
I am aware that the municipal manager has been challenged on the conducting of roadblocks with the main purpose of collecting fines. More specifically, he was challenged on alleged intimidation by officials on duty at the scene.
I was stopped at the Bird Park in Uvongo during April and here is my experience: Knowing what it was all about I nevertheless asked the officer who pulled me over ‘what this was all about?’ and his not-too-friendly response was ‘go to the caravan and see how much money you owe the municipality’. I replied that I had received no summons and would not be paying any fines. I was still instructed to report to the caravan.
On arriving there I saw what looked like a more senior officer and told this person I had not received a summons and would not pay any outstanding fine. Again, in a not-too-friendly tone I was told a summons would be issued at the caravan, so I stood in the queue.
At the caravan, a computer record was produced showing I had outstanding fines to the value of R900. I demanded a summons as I had been told by the officer standing metres away would happen, but then another official seated inside the caravan realised I was making a noise and quickly told me they were not forcing anyone to pay, rather they were just trying to make it ‘convenient’ to pay.
Meanwhile there were several persons standing in the ‘payment’ queue, most of whom seemed quite subjugated and resigned to pay, no doubt due to feeling intimidated.
My comments are that I felt intimidated from the start, but decided to stand my ground. The officer who instructed me to go to the caravan to ‘see how much I owed the municipality’ is the start. I don’t believe I ‘owe’ them anything until such time as a court says I do, and I have to wonder what would have happened had I chosen to drive away? Would I have been arrested and on what grounds?
Then there was the second officer who tried to frighten me by stating a summons would be issued there and then. This was an untruth and meant to intimidate and, I believe, designed to have me pulling out my credit card.
I have heard of people being threatened with arrest (you can only be arrested if a summons has been issued and you have failed to respond, then a warrant of arrest may be issued) and the public should know one has a right to appear in court and so cannot be forced by the municipality to pay any fine issued in terms of Section 341 of the Criminal Procedure Act no 51 of 1977. So, if you are not inclined to simply ‘roll over’ at one of these roadblocks, you have the right to refuse and be summoned in the normal course of the law.
I am not an advocate of speeding or breaking the law, but by the same token, I do not believe that the authorities have the right to apply intimidation practices in a country where the Bill of Rights is enshrined in the constitution.
Rather than having a camera attendant hiding in a dark hole in the bush on a downhill, and rather than having a significant portion of the traffic police attending to these roadblocks, why not have more visible policing and rigorous application of the law to the taxi drivers, some of whom are a law unto themselves?
CONCERNED CITIZEN
