‘Intense’law enforcement puts 600 new traffic cases on Wynberg court roll daily

WYNBERG is home to the busiest municipal court in SA.

It’s one of 11 municipal courts in Cape Town and has the highest case load.

Kenny Schoeman, manager of the city’s municipal courts, said this while briefing the safety and security portfolio committee meeting yesterday.

The court has a wider jurisdiction than other municipal courts.

Schoeman said Wynberg court had 600 new cases, only related to traffic offences, on its roll each day.

He said some of the challenges faced by the courts was the heavy case load.

Schoeman attributed the increase to the “intense” law enforcement operations.

Heathcliff Thomas, city traffic head, said there were restrictions around the number of cases that could be put on the roll at the busier courts.

Thomas explained that arrest warrants first needed to be signed off in the courts. But because of the large number of cases, it was not always possible to execute the warrants.

“There is a backlog of warrants at Wynberg. Piles of warrants which are not signed becoming dead war- rants,” said Thomas.

Schoeman explained that the first municipal court was opened at the city hall in 2000.

Since then 11 have opened in areas such as Blue Downs, Goodwood, Khayelitsha and Atlantis.

Municipal courts were different to community courts, in that the community courts handled less serious crimes.

Some of these included littering and drinking in public.

JP Smith, mayoral committee member for safety and security, told the committee they were hoping to expand the community courts to other parts of the city.

This would also allow courts to work on diversion programmes for offenders.