In a recent interview with eNCA, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) spokesperson Xolani Fihla revealed that the city has had no working speed cameras for almost a year, and that all speed prosecutions have halted as a result.
Additionally, he confirmed the problem extends to handheld cameras.
Fihla said the previous contract with the service provider that maintained the cameras and uploaded fines expired on 31 May 2021, and the JMPD is currently in a tender process for a new service provider which is expected to conclude by July 2022, reported BusinessTech.
This implies that the issue will continue for at least two more months.
The city is losing significant amounts of revenue as traffic fines are responsible for bringing in over R3 million a month. The JMPD is currently relying on handwritten fines to ensure serious offenders are still prosecuted, said Fihla.
Smart roadblocks
The news of the broken speeding cameras comes after an announcement from last week in which the city of Johannesburg said it reintroduced “smart roadblocks” to enforce compliance and collect revenue.
The smart roadblocks recognise number plates and automatically identify motorists who have outstanding fines, who have stagnant fines, who have fines with incorrect addresses, or who are driving cloned vehicles.
At the time of the announcement, executive mayor of Johannesburg Mpho Phalatse said the smart roadblocks were already in operation for nine weeks and have brought in over R14 million for the city.
Additionally, the above revelation follows roughly six months after news first broke that there were no speeding fines being administered in both Pretoria and Johannesburg.
In October last year, the two firms that administer traffic fines to over 500 fleet operators said the police departments for these two cities have not issued any traffic fines or speed infringements caught on camera since 1 July 2021.
The same reason was given for the delay in speeding fines – an expired service provider contract – and the responsibility of loading fines onto the system therefore fell on the police officers.
In response, civil action group Outa warned law enforcement agencies that a fine notice cannot be issued to an infringer if more than 40 days have passed since the infringement.
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