Abandoned unroadworthy sedan taxis crushed by City

The City of Cape Town's Traffic Service destroyed 44 unroadworthy sedan taxis, commonly known as 'amaphelas'. The crushing exercise marked a first for the City of Cape Town and forms part of efforts to free up space in the Maitland Pound.

The vehicles in question were all impounded between 2010 and 2012 and have been left unclaimed by their owners, even though attempts were made to contact them. Regulation 320 of the National Road Traffic Act allows for the disposal of vehicles left abandoned at a traffic premises for longer than 21 days. Vehicles can be auctioned; however, those that are unroadworthy are being disposed of by a contractor appointed to crush and compact the vehicles.

'By law, this exercise could have been done a long time ago, but it hasn't been a priority until now because space at the pound has not been an issue. In fact, we used to have a 90% collection rate of public transport vehicles that had been impounded. However, I think the impoundment release fees have started taking a toll, because now there is a full pound which means that fewer vehicles are being collected. Hopefully this very expensive lesson will make more public transport operators toe the line, so we can make progress in ensuring safer roads,' said the City's Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.

High fees for release

The impoundment release fee for a vehicle where the driver does not have an operating licence is R7,000 for the first impoundment, R10,000 on the second occasion, and R15,000 for a third or subsequent impoundment. When vehicles are impounded for the driver operating contrary to the conditions of their operating licence, the first-time impound release fee is R2,500, while the second impoundment is R5,000 and the third or subsequent impound is R10,000.

Between January and August this year, City traffic officers impounded 788 public transport vehicles for operating licence transgressions and for being unroadworthy. Currently, there are a total of 547 minibus- and sedan taxis at the Maitland and Ndabeni pounds.

'We will be disposing of more vehicles in the coming months. Unroadworthy vehicles that were impounded in 2013 and remain uncollected will be next on the crushing list. The City is also planning its next auction for November, where both private and public transport vehicles will be disposed of,' added Smith.