Pay Up!

Okay so all those fines total up to about R 3 800 and I just paid R 200. The idea of paying fines has always annoyed me. I figured I am a good driver and have not caused any accidents…okay I had caused 2 accidents but the 1 was between me and a wall….and the other was between me and road light pole…so the only hurt felt was to my bank account for repairs on my car.  There are thousands upon thousands of taxi drivers who break a traffic rule like every like 5 minutes and I am pretty sure they don’t get fined and even if they do, they don’t pay them. 

Well my other excuse was that I just forgot about the fine and the idea of going to the traffic department and standing in a never ending queue just to pay a fine that I don’t feel I deserved (although I probably did, I mean I speed and park incorrectly, yesterday I got a fine for parking on the pavement) anyway…so I going to the traffic department was too much of mission and inconvenience so figured like the many times before and just like my father told me…that I should just ignore the fine and when I get a summons notice I go to the traffic department, give them some story about not receiving the notice/warning and get the fine wiped off the system. Now this has happened about 7 times since I have been driving (+/- 12 yrs) and the last time because I had one large fine and a few smaller ones, the officer made me pay for one cheap fine. But I was okay with that.

But now technology has creeped up on me. For the past few months I have been getting SMSs notifying me that that was the final notice and I had to pay for a certain fine…in the SMS I even got a link to go onto a website to pay for it via eft or via online card transaction. Well now I have no excuse…

Since we have been in our new offices I have been parking on the pavement…. Because I have a SUV now and so have the power to do that and because…everybody else does…. and you know…. 

But yesterday I got a ticket for parking on the pavement and obstructing the way for pedestrians. Got myself a nice R 500 fine. I really scratched my head for an excuse not to pay and way to argue that I did no wrong….but I couldn’t….they even print the ticket and leave it on your dashboard. Before they used to leave it stuck to your side window so when you took it off it left a mark….leaving you irritated. But they don’t do that anymore….

And so today I paid my oldest fine….which was R 200 so 1 fine down….11 more to go! I feel good for paying…although I would have rather had a

MC Donalds McChicken Meal…. or McNuggets….