City takes on car washers again

THE CITY Police’s determination to stamp out car washing on public streets continues in the new year, as the N$500 fine issued to a car washer last week showed.

Alfred Pieters (30), an unemployed man whose poverty-stricken lifestyle is sustained by odd jobs such as washing cars, was the recipient of the fine.Pieters can choose to pay the fine by April 26 or appear in court and defend himself.Pieters said last week that because he is unemployed, and unable to pay the fine, he has no choice but to defend himself in court in April. The fine comes a month after the Windhoek High Court overturned a ruling by the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in which car washer Jan Markus was sentenced to three month’s imprisonment or a fine of N$300 on September 17 2010.Markus was caught washing cars on Lüderitz Street in front of the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court.Markus told the same court that washing cars was the only legitimate avenue open to him to earn money to support his wife and two children. The public rallied behind Markus and his fine was paid by a good Samaritan who read about his plight in the media. Then, in December, the High Court asked that the case be submitted for review. The decision was based on a section in the Criminal Procedure Act that permits the High Court to review a case from a lower court if there are concerns that proceedings in the case were not in accordance with justice. During the High Court ruling in December, Judge Kato van Niekerk, with the agreement of Judge President Petrus Damaseb, ruled that Markus’s conviction should be set aside and the fine refunded. The ruling was possible because Markus’s conviction was based on a regulation in the Street and Traffic Regulations, which states that hawking, vending or peddling on a street in Windhoek is illegal.The judges stated in the review judgment that the relevant regulations under which Markus was charged are in fact the Street Trading Regulations. ‘It is clear that the prohibition in the regulation is not aimed at the activity of washing a vehicle in a public street, even if it is done as a business,’ Judge Van Niekerk wrote.The legal loophole is absent from the fine written out to Pieters, who might not be so lucky this time. According to Superintendent Johan Kellerman of the City Police, the High Court was able to overturn the conviction because of a mistake made at the Magistrate’s Court during Markus’s case. Markus was arrested under Regulation 22 of the Street and Traffic Regulations which state that it is unlawful to ‘wash, dry, bleach any article or thing whatsoever’ on a street in Windhoek.During court proceedings however, Markus’s charge sheet stated that he was being charged under the regulations that outlaw peddling, hawking or any other business. This mistake was used by the High Court to overturn the conviction. Kellerman said the fine issued to Pieters clearly states that he was fined under the correct section of the Municipality of Windhoek Street and Traffic Regulations, which refers specifically to washing vehicles on public roads.