Welcome to Justice Project South Africa
"Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings." - Helen Keller
"The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
Our facebook profiles can be found here and here.
After it was exposed that the JMPD have been trapping illegaly in Gordon Road, Bergbron, West Rand, Johannesburg and the resultant enquiries we have had from the public, we have decided to show examples of the sites involved.
Below is the site claiming to be GORDON RD EAST TUS/BTW BERGBRON LN/DR & LANGE LN/AVE (travelling east - towards Newlands) which in fact shows the vehicle travelling west, towards the N1 freeway. You can click on the image for an enlarged view.
The JMPD have publically committed to submit an "internal representation" to withdraw all of these fines (and those in the other direction) and refund motorists who have already paid them, after publicly acknowledging that they were in fact "illegal".
What they have not said is when. Don't hold your breath!
We have received a number of complaints and queries about SMS messages and emails going out to people who allegedly have old outstanding traffic fines. Many have been very concerned that the messages were another 411 (like winning lottery notifications) scam as have been doing the rounds for some time now. We have investigated and can say that this is certainly not a scam.
Payfine.co.za currently says:
Dear Payfine User
|
| Please note that the e-mails or sms's sent out by Johannesberg Metro did not originate from Payfine and does not consist of information from the Payfine website. Johannesburg Metro has been notified of the problem with the fines Notice numbers issued from their communications and any queries in this regard should be directed to the JMPD Metro Police Traffic Fines Division 0861 227 861 (Monday to Friday, 8am -3pm). |
Below is an example of an email sent out by traffic-fines.co.za on Sunday 31 January 2010 at 10:11 at night. You can click on the image below to view a larger view of it
You may notice a few really salient points about this on your own, but just in case you don't, here are some pointers:
- At the top of the email proudly appear the official JMPD insignia and contact details even though this email has been sent from a separate private company.
- The original date of the alleged offence is 2008/01/08 - more than 2 years ago.
- The date of the "letter" is 29 January 2010. The date of sending/receipt of the email is 31 January 2010. If this letter was posted in an envelope with a stamp, it may well have reached the recipient before the email (an almost instantaneous event) did!
- Point 3 states that "the period within which payment in admission of guilt may be made has lapsed."
- Point 4 then contradicts this and says "You may still admit your guilt to the offence in question by making a payment before 2010/02/12."
- The banking details provided are genuinely those of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police.
- Whilst this notice says that you can view and pay the fine on payfine.co.za, entering the notice number on payfine.co.za's website returns "Please enter a valid ticket/notice number or a valid AARTO number". This does not go far to allaying fears of this being a scam, does it?
- The "call centre" telephone number is 0878054906, which in addition to being a premium rate (around R2.30 per minute when last we enquired) Vox telecom number belongs to none other than VVM Collections, a division of Van De Venter, Mojapelo Inc., a law firm and collection agency who have an abysmal reputation for harassment and unprofessional behaviour.
- A scanned signature of Director Gerneke, LIPCO appears at the bottom of this letter.
Here is what is not so obvious:
- "Recording" that a notice was posted by ordinary post is far from proof that it actually was. This may be acceptable legal jargon, but one has to wonder if you could claim the same by saying that you record that you sent in a representation on the matter.
- Two years is a completely unreasonable amount of time to expect anyone to remember where they were at the time in respect to anything - let alone a camera fine. Any reasonable court would most certainly agree that road conditions and the like could change in a two year period and no-one can go back in time to inspect them, can they?
- LIPCO is reportedly an abbreviation for "Licensing Prosecutions and Courts" and not a company as one may think or assume it could be. The full title is not that long and is not open to conjecture so why abbreviate it?
- Nowhere in the Criminal Procedures Act 51, 1977 is provision made for delivery of any notices via email or SMS.
- The domain www.traffic-fines.co.za is under construction.
- According to Vox Datapro, the domain traffic-fines.co.za was registered in 2008 for VVM Collections (Pty) Ltd., a seemingly non-existent company according to CIPRO.
- Van De Venter, Mojapelo Inc. is the same company that contracts to, amongst others, the SABC for collection of Television License fees. VVM have a lovely track record with the public and Hello Peter as you can see by clicking this link.
- Whilst threatening you with criminal proceedings may be seen as an acceptable method of coercing you into paying, making threats to get money is still tantamount to extortion.
- Just how many last chances to pay do you think are reasonable for offenders, including you? The Criminal Procedures Act provides for a summons to be issued and served if an admission of guilt fine is not paid within 30 days of the issue of a Section 341 notice but this rarely happens. So issue the summons in accordance with the law, have it served legally by a court appointed officer and let the accused stand trial! It's more expensive than an email or SMS, but it is the prescribed legislation.
- Of course, the AARTO Act changes all of this with respect to infringements (as opposed to offences) and everyone should become familiar with how the process works under the new Act prior to its nationwide full implementation on 1 April 2010.
The JMPD has responded, saying amongst other things that the feedback on this initiative has been "overwhelmingly positive". One has to wonder where this feedback has come from, don't you think?
This is not a huge conspiracy, but it does seem like a curious way to go about things doesn't it, or is it just us who thinks so? Of course, if you have no outstanding fines, you don't really need to worry about this do you?
The first two participants in the JPSA Eyewitness Programme went out with ER24 paramedics on Saturday 12 December 2009 and both gained a lot from the experience.
Funding - our Achille's Heel.
JPSA remains an almost completely unfunded organisation. Despite countless appeals and words of encouragement, to date our funding remains a sore point.
Those who do assist us financially are listed and thanked here. The brutal fact of the matter is that our past and current efforts cannot be sustained on what we currently receive on a monthly basis. Whilst soccer, golf, cricket and a variety of other "causes" remains a worthy recipient of funding, we apparently do not.
If anyone thinks that the banks, petrol stations and everyone else accepts words and letters of praise as payment, they are sorely mistaken. Just try it for yourself.
What it would take.
It would not take much for the JPSA to continue to exist and for its leaders to continue the fight.
Charlene Human - one of our most staunch supporters has set up a R50 per week standing order on her bank account to donate to JPSA.
She says:
"I find it an extremely worthy cause to donate to, the public is so unaware of their own rights that to know there is someone that does have the knowledge and is willing to fight for those rights means that the corrupt officials in Metro as well as SAPS can possibly be brought to book! Thanks for your tenacity and sense of what is right and what is wrong – it at least restores some faith in this disillusioned South African"
If a mere 1,000 people in South Africa were to set up similar standing orders to that which Charlene has, we would be able to continue the fight without starving to death.
We are now begging. Please, please help us. We know there are plenty of worthy causes out there but hope that you will realise that our cause is as vital as we think it is.
If you want to set up a standing order, our banking details appear below:
Account Name: Justice Project South Africa
Short Name: JPSA
Bank: First National Bank
Branch: Randpark Ridge
Branch Code: 255955
Account Number: 62230171671
SWIFT Code: FIRNZAJJ768
Please include your name/company as a reference and email us so we can acknowlege and thank you.