We all hate getting love letters from the traffic department, don't we? If you get caught, you must pay.
However, the system is terribly flawed. Who are these fines really punishing? Certainly not the wealthy who simply shrug off fines and keep speeding.
It's the middle to lower income group who are punished unequally for the same infringement. How so you may ask? well a R1250 fine for a rich business man is not even a distant issue, but it is devastating for the poor man. Fines should be charged according to your income in order to avoid unequal punishment for the same traffic infringement.
I was driving to uni this morning on the M1 south in Joburg. The traffic was unusually terrible for that time of the day (I presumed there was a crash or something).
To my astonishment, as I neared Melrose arch there was a JMPD road block on the northbound side of the M1. The southbound drivers were rubbernecking! The JMPD had cut the traffic down to one lane so that they could check every car for outstanding fines!
I was mad with rage when I saw the nearly 7km long traffic jam caused by this road block. It eventually became funny how stupid the JMPD road block was.
There were so many cars held up in the jam that I wondered how much Joburg's economy had slowed for the duration of the roadblock seeing as it the primary highway through the city.
What idiot in the JMPD decided it was a good idea to block off the most busy stretch of road in South Africa at 9am on a Tuesday morning?
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.