MUNICIPAL INCOME
Are speeding motorists really subsidising struggling towns?
People driving through Laingsburg should slow down. The tiny central Karoo town is easily SA’s most zealous issuer of traffic fines. It levies the equivalent of R2,613 for each of its 8,900 residents, a Business Day analysis of data collated by the Treasury for the 2015-16 fiscal year shows. The bulk of fines are dished out to motorists passing through on the N1 highway and while barely a fifth of them are collected they nevertheless play a vital role in shoring up the municipality’s finances. "To us it’s a very important source of revenue. We won’t be able to survive without it," says Laingsburg municipal manager Stephanus Pieterse. "We have a positive bank balance but the alarm light has been flickering. The prospects don’t look good for the next three years as revenue is limited and we have no cash reserves."Municipal fines per capita Click on a municipality to see if it's one to avoidSource: Treasury, Statistics SAThe data from the Treasury’s section 71 reports shows that the la...
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