Mrs Denise Turner’s life has allegedly become notably more difficult since she’s been trying to get answers from eMalahleni’s traffic department, and her experience has left others echoing their agreement that the system is not working.
Mrs Turner has reportedly been helping her son Royden, who lives in Johannesburg, with fines incurred by his vehicle in eMalahleni.
At the time that the fines were incurred, her other son, AJ, who is resident in eMalahleni was driving the vehicle.
The issued traffic fines are allegedly printed so badly that the vehicle in them cannot be identified.
On August 22, the Turners allegedly first made contact with the traffic department via email. They did so because Royden had received an SMS stating that he had outstanding traffic fines on paymyfines.co.za.
Royden, after reportedly being threatened in the SMS on August 20, which stated that he would be handed over for collection imminently, quickly logged onto paymyfines.co.za only to find that no fines had been loaded under his or his vehicle’s details.
ALSO READ
Motorists allegedly made to pay to see their speeding fine photographs
Check your speed limit in OR Tambo
The SMS which Royden had received allegedly instructed him to contact a call centre located in Cape Town should he not be able to make use of paymyfines.co.za.
Royden supposedly contacted the call centre, only to be told that they were unable to help him other than by informing him that he had four outstanding fines issued by eMalahleni’s traffic department.
The call centre reportedly told Royden to phone 013 690 6222, which turned out to be an emergency number. The operator on the other side of the phone then allegedly told Royden to phone 013 690 6838. This number took Royden through to the license department, who then supposedly referred him back to 013 690 6222, the emergency number, again.
Royden phoned the given emergency number again, whose operator then referred him to 013 690 6204, which was apparently the traffic department’s number. The operator allegedly warned Royden that the phone might not be answered on this number, but that he should keep trying to dial it until someone answered.
The issued traffic fines are allegedly printed so badly that the vehicle in them cannot be identified.
Once registered with paymyfines.co.za, motorists receive a message stating that they waive their right to raise the defence that notice of the infringement was not posted within 30 days.
The Turners were thus left with no legal recourse because of paymyfines.co.za’s fine print; other than to obtain the fines and ask for the discount which was offered should the fines be paid within 32 days, or a discount on the grounds that the driver who incurred the fine is currently unemployed.
Eventually after many emails to the traffic department, and many phone calls later, Royden was issued a copy of his traffic fines through a courier service which he had to pay for, as the traffic department allegedly refused to email him the traffic infringements. The copies he was issued were reportedly not originals, and were allegedly printed so badly that in many of them the vehicle cannot be positively identified.
Mrs Denise Turner allegedly still hasn’t had any luck in contacting the traffic department.
Although the Turners finally received copies of Royden’s fines, the traffic department allegedly completely ignored the Turners’ requests to reissue the fines to the driver, AJ Turner, Royden’s brother. They had also received no information or further correspondence about a possible reduction either on the grounds of timely payment or on the grounds of the driver’s unemployment.
On September 11, the Turners once again contacted the traffic department, having still not received any communication regarding the transfer of the fines to the actual driver of the vehicle or the requested information pertaining to reductions.
At the time of publication, the Turners’ woes were still ongoing.
