City of Cape Town’s Traffic Service records uptick in violations

CAPE TOWN - Poor driver behaviour is once again in the spotlight, as the City of Cape Town’s Traffic Service has recorded a rise of traffic violations.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, the city recorded a 49% increase in motorists skipping red lights and more than 2,7 million traffic offences.

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In addition, over 12,000 impoundments were recorded between city and provincial Traffic Services, particularly on minibus taxis, e-hailing vehicles, and buses.

MMC for Safety and Security JP Smith said those who break laws should be held accountable.

“We introduced the dash cams with the license plate recognition and that has changed their dynamic quite a lot because we are now recovering a much higher percentage of these outstanding warrants because our traffic enforcement vehicles on the roads are identifying the vehicles with the outstanding warrants.”

SURVEILLANCE INCREASE

The city has increased surveillance on the roads after the recent statistics showing an increase in traffic violations.

Smith said they have invited the public to log problematic intersections through the e-services portal to guide staff on where to target their efforts.

“For the last eight months, we have been doing additional enforcement at intersections because of the poor compliance rates. Where there's a stop street, you need to stop or where there's a traffic light, you need to be guided by the light and so where people have been non-compliant with that, we have been stepping up our enforcement, with staff being requested every day as part of their duty to target problematic intersections.”