The City of Cape Town’s Traffic Service has impounded more than 500 public transport vehicles during operations in the first six months of 2015. The operations conducted by the department’s Technical Services Division focused on minibus-taxis, sedan taxis and scholar transport vehicles. A total of 31 operations were conducted across the city, including central Cape Town, Nyanga, Atlantis, Athlone, Table View, Milnerton, Vrygrond and Delft.

All in all, 516 vehicles were impounded – 38 in a single operation focused on ‘amaphela’ taxis in Philippi in May. Other statistics included:
• 14 arrests for various offences
• 125 arrests for outstanding warrants
• 456 motorists released on a warning for outstanding warrants
• 580 warrants executed
• 7 474 fines issued

‘The public transport industry is a source of ongoing frustration, debate and criticism. Very often the City is accused of not doing enough to tackle issues within the industry such as illegal operators and bad driver behaviour. Hopefully these statistics, which exclude our day to day enforcement, will go some way to dispelling the myth that there is no enforcement of the public transport sector,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.

The ongoing enforcement focus has also resulted in an increase in the number of vehicles at the City’s vehicle pound in Maitland. Currently, the pound is home to 416 public transport vehicles – 256 minibuses, six midi-buses and 154 sedan taxis.

‘A year ago, we had a situation where in more than 90% of all public transport cases, vehicle owners paid to reclaim their vehicles. The fact that we are now sitting with a full pound indicates that it is becoming harder for them to keep up with the financial demands of reclaiming these vehicles. We are therefore hopeful that this will serve as a deterrent to those who think it is acceptable to operate without a valid operating licence or to encroach on routes where they do not belong,’ added Alderman Smith.

Public transport vehicles are impounded when the driver does not have a valid operating licence. The release fee for a first-time impound is R7 000. The second time around the release fee is R10 000 and a third or subsequent impound requires a R15 000 release fee.

In cases where drivers are operating contrary to the conditions of their operating licences, a first-time impound release fee is R2 500, the second impound release fee is R5 000 and a third or subsequent impound requires a R10 000 release fee.

According to the National Road Traffic Act, any abandoned vehicle that has been impounded can be auctioned after a 30-day period if it is not reclaimed by the owner, where the owner cannot be traced, or where the owner fails to pay the outstanding fees.

The City of Cape Town holds two public auctions per year to dispose of abandoned vehicles, but to date no public transport vehicles have been sold in this manner. Alternatively, vehicles that are deemed unroadworthy are destroyed. Plans are currently being finalised for the destruction of the first batch of public transport vehicles in August 2015.