Arrogance or ignorance?

A Conveyancer’s Diary: Monday 26th April 2010


Arrogance or ignorance?

This one is about “traffic fines”.

I have always understood, since my second year studying law at university, that only a Court may impose a sentence of a fine (or imprisonment) after finding an offender guilty.

No traffic officer, no matter how highly placed, has that power. So, when the local metro issues and sends me a notice to the effect that on a certain day and time it is alleged that I committed xyz offence by exceeding the speed limit [See section 59(4) of the National Road Traffic Act 93 of 1996], then no matter how much the metro or its “deployed cadre bosses” want to usurp a Court of Law’s powers, it cannot do so. [Section 89 of the same Act clearly provides for a person to be “found guilty of an offence” in terms of the act and goes further to say that a person found guilty of an offence in terms of the Act, may be fined or imprisoned, the period of such imprisonment being limited, depending on what offence is committed.]

And, if one is accused of a crime, one has a right, enshrined in our Constitution, to a fair trial [Section 35(3) of The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996].

Which, if I am correct, implies that the authorities have a DUTY to ensure that an accused person is actually given a trial [and not just “fined”] and that such authorities must either bring the matter before a Court of law or withdraw the notice.

So, when an ANC Councillor by the name of Nomvuzo Shabalala, is quoted in our local municipal propaganda broadsheet* as saying: “If you have fine, you need to pay it or you will be arrested”, then one must take that with a pinch of salt and treat the statement with circumspection. If the metro has simply issued a notice of an alleged offence, you are entitled to ignore it until they issue a notice for you to appear in Court. If they do nothing, and you are not found guilty by a Court of Law, you have every right to ignore the notice and you cannot be “arrested” for such a notice. Such arrest will be unlawful. You may only be arrested once a warrant of arrest has been issued by a Court of Law [unless you are suspected of committing a very serious offence. Exceeding the speed limit by a relatively small amount is not a serious offence for which one can be arrested without a warrant, unless off course you are driving so fast that what you are doing is reasonably considered as dangerous driving.]

I have now been trying to get our local metro for the past three years to actually issue notices to appear in court on various alleged traffic offences but it has still failed to do so.

Regards,
Sieg

*called the “metro ezasegagasini”


Quote:

“In the Durban [High] Court the lunch adjournment is designed to enable the judges to walk to the Durban Club and back for lunch, something none of them have done for years.”

Judge Malcolm Wallis in his eighth Victoria and Griffiths Mxenge Memorial Lecture, as quoted in the Sunday Tribune of 25th April 2010