PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Bitou municipality is in the throes of establishing a municipal court to make it easier for the municipality to collect outstanding fines.
The areas targeted by the envisaged court will be to prosecute outstanding traffic fines, enforcing by-laws and issuing fines for non-compliance, enforcing building regulations, issuing fines for non-compliance and attending to minor complaints from the public like barking dogs.
Municipal manager Mbulelo Memani recommended that the council take note of the report for the establishment of the municipal court.
Negotiations
He also said negotiations need to take place with the Department of Justice and the National Prosecuting Authority.
In addition, that he enters into the "necessary tri-party Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish and run the Municipal Court".
In the executive summary put to council it was pointed out that a number of items needed to be attended to for a municipal court to be established and run effectively.
These are:
* Issues such as the appointment of a magistrate, payment to the Department of Justice, training and other incidentals which need to be agreed upon, including that the location of the court be included in the MOU;
* To prepare for a MOU a business plan needs to be drawn up, highlighting the benefits of having a municipal court and the costs/income expectations; and
* The National Prosecuting Authority plays a part in the appointment of the prosecutor and generally sits in on interviews. Delegations are determined in the MOU by agreement, but limited to by-laws, business legislation and building regulations.
Archive facility
What will also be needed is to update by-laws, to enable the traffic fine books to be referred to the municipal court, and an additional archive facility for storage of court documents.
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