According to a News24 report, the City of Johannesburg will continue to issue traffic fines based on the evidence caught on speeding cameras, despite the contracts of speed camera service providers coming to an end in January this year.
In a statement, spokesperson Luyanda Longwe said this had resulted in reduced law enforcement capacity.
“JMPD (Johannesburg Metro Police Department) has [since] deployed traffic management officers at various hot spots across the city to man the mobile speed cameras,” Longwe said.
Times Live reported that Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) spokesman Wayne Minnaar said on Thursday that there was still manual speed enforcement in the city‚ but not at the level it was before March.
“There was a decision taken by the city to increase police visibility. Therefore all speed enforcement was done manually‚” JMPD spokesman Wayne Minnaar said.
He said this meant there were fewer cameras on the roads as more JMPD officials concentrated on law enforcement.
“It means where officers identify a speeding hotspot‚ officers man the cameras manually and issue the fines directly to offending motorists. The city has decided to do away with electronic enforcement‚” Minnaar said.
On Thursday morning, Moneyweb reported that several Johannesburg-based companies have not received any speeding fines since March. Normally these companies would receive up to 1000 fines a month.
Former director Gerrie Gerneke, who retired from the Johannesburg Metro Police (JMPD) two years ago, told Moneyweb that the department used to generate R30 million to R35 million per month from traffic fines. This was largely done through the 500 000 camera fines issued every month.
This income he believes has now been reduced to less than R3 million.
Gerneke says other contracts that the city cancelled due to non-compliance include the provision of CCTV services, which is the nerve centre of the security system in the CBD, and contracts for the processing of accident statistics and the digitisation of licensing documentation.
“These systems are the backbone of law enforcement in the city,” says Gerneke. “Without them the whole system that was built up over years is imploding. It breaks my heart.”
Read more:
News24: City of Johannesburg still using speed cameras to issue fines
Times Live: Joburg stops speed camera contracts
Moneyweb: No more camera fines for Joburg speedsters
Destinyman.com: Open season for Joburg speedsters as speed cameras go offline
