A R30 000 party pooper
2003-06-08 21:16
Cape Town - Partygoers at Cape nightclubs had to fork out more than R30 000 to get their vehicles back at the weekend after traffic authorities impounded cars that were illegally parked in the city centre.
Night owls stood blinking in surprise outside the nightclubs in Long Street in the early hours of Saturday morning after the Cape traffic department towed away 41 cars that were parked in the side streets.
Some of them apparently thought their cars had been stolen before they heard that the vehicles could be found at Gallows Hill traffic department.
Offenders had to pay R400 to have their cars released and were each fined an additional R350.
Heathcliff Thomas, the city's traffic co-ordinator, said on Sunday that they did not remove the cars out of vindictiveness, but because they posed a danger to other motorists.
"If a car is parked on a yellow line in the middle of the night, it remains a traffic offence. However, we are not that draconian.
"If the car poses no risk to other traffic, we would definitely not go to the trouble of towing it away. In this case, however, people parked in the middle of the road and simply created their own parking spaces there.
"Busses that were hired to transport people to the club could not use this road. We received a complaint and decided to remove the cars.
He said it took about three hours to move all the cars.
Thomas added that motorists could claim their cars from the pound any time of the night or day.
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