Four months after this heroic taxi driver was fined R6 000 and his permit confiscated while saving the life of a 13-year-old girl he had been rushing to hospital the City has still not scrapped the fine.
Instead, Jack Arthur Williams, 41, claims he is now being victimised by traffic cops.
Jack says he has been advised to write a report and submit it to City officials, who must still make a decision whether to scrap the hefty fine.
Jack appeared at the Wynberg Magistrates’ Traffic Court on Tuesday where the matter was postponed to 19 February.
In September, with 12 other passengers on board and heading to the Cape Town CBD, Jack was stopped by a woman whose teen daughter was having epileptic seizures and needed to get to hospital.
Jack rushed to Red Cross Children’s Hospital but was stopped along Thornton Road in Athlone, where a traffic cop confiscated his licence and permit and ordered the girl to be removed from the taxi and to be transported by an ambulance.
Jack left his vehicle behind, flagged down another taxi and took the girl and her mother to Red Cross.
According to the City’s Richard Coleman, Jack was driving recklessly and on the wrong side of the road.
The department later returned Jack’s permit, but he claims traffic cops are making his life hell: “I’ve been victim to traffic officials after my story was in the papers and I was even fined by a traffic officer for passengers who weren’t wearing their seatbelts.”
The City says it’s unable to comment on the issue as the matter is before court.