The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s three traffic courts are under tremendous strain, struggling to process on average about 500 cases every day.
This has prompted the traffic and licensing department to push for the number of courts to be increased to at least six.
The courts in Motherwell, Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth all process on average about 500 cases on the roll daily, with the majority of the cases carried in the Port Elizabeth court.
Traffic and licensing director Warren Prins said that, due to the strain placed on the courts, several cases had been struck off the roll, resulting in a loss of revenue for the city.
“We push our courts to the limit.
“We have done an analysis to compare the number of cases on the roll and when they are finally concluded.”
Prins said that, based on his analysis, it had been decided that the city needs more traffic courts.
“That is to bridge the gap between the shortfall and the long periods of time that cases get onto the court roll.
“Our court sits every Monday to Friday in PE which means that per day the courts can handle 500 cases.
“Sometimes we negotiate to have slightly more cases, but we make provisions for that,” Prins said.
The move to request additional courts means the organogram will also be updated to accommodate a magistrate, prosecutor, clerk and administrative staff.
Meanwhile, at a safety and security committee meeting on Tuesday, councillors discussed introducing a traffic fine amnesty from November to January 31.
Traffic offenders with fines of more than R300 will get a 30% discount during the amnesty period.
This comes after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) requested that the city scrap all warrants of arrest older than two years, along with the fines.
This as the caseloads continue to pile up.
The city hopes that amnesty will encourage motorists to pay their fines.
Currently, the municipality is collecting R2.4m a month in traffic fines.
In a report to the portfolio committee on Tuesday, Prins wrote that the plan was to recoup about R8.4m from outstanding fines.
In March, he reported to the committee that the municipality was owed about R28m in outstanding fines from 36,000 motorists in the metro.
ANC councillor Patrick Vani said he supported the discounting of traffic fines as it was service delivery.
“If the NPA instructed us to do this then I propose that we go with these recommendations because it will also help people. This is service delivery,” Vani said.
DA councillor Gustav Rautenbach said he was reluctant to support the recommendations as the report was poorly written and unclear.
Rautenbach was referring to the confusing dates cited on the report.
Safety and security committee chair Litho Suka said the intentions were good, but the report should be properly written.
The report will be presented to the mayoral committee before it is tabled in council.