The City’s amended Traffic By-law has been gazetted and paves the way for more effective traffic enforcement

The City of Cape Town first introduced its Traffic By-law in 2011. In 2019, the City’s Safety and Security Portfolio Committee spearheaded a review of the by-law.

The amended Traffic By-law was circulated for public participation in October 2019 and solicited more than 1 800 comments.

It has taken the City three years to get to this point, and they hope that law-abiding road users and citizens in general will benefit from this undertaking.

Next steps include training and information sessions for enforcement staff on the practical application and enforcement of the amended by-law. We ask that the public too familiarise themselves with the document, to ensure that they remain on the side of right.

– Chairperson of the Safety and Security Portfolio Committee, Councillor Mzwakhe Nqavashe.

The amended by-law makes provision for the impoundment of vehicles in certain instances, including:

• Where the vehicle was involved in reckless or negligent driving or illegal street racing

• The driver is under the influence of alcohol

• The driver is unlicensed

• The driver disobeys an instruction to stop or pull over, resulting in pursuit

• The vehicle is unregistered, has an expired licence disc older than 90 days, is not roadworthy or has been abandoned

The amended by-law now includes a section that focuses directly on public transport vehicles, not only the conventional “taxi” but also those in the e-hailing sector.

Previous legislation proved to be lacking and often allowed offenders to easily bypass enforcement action, resulting in a blatant disregard for road rules, with very limited consequences that failed to change the driving behaviour of public transport drivers.

The City of Cape Town is committed to road safety. It is evident in our continued investment in resources and technology. It is also evident in this amended by-law. For years we have literally chased after offenders engaging in reckless and negligent driving, some of whom commit the same reckless driving offences regularly on the road, whether they are on the way to work or on a night out. Despite the increase in enforcement, bad driving behaviours continue to flourish. The amendments to this by-law should go a long way towards curbing reckless driving by all motorists, as well as those who use the public roads for racing, who pose a serious and often life threatening risk to other road users.

– Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.

City takes to the road with amended Traffic By-law

The amended by-law was gazetted on 29 July 2022 and paves the way for more effective traffic enforcement, and ultimately, safer roads for all.

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— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) August 2, 2022