After almost two years of no speed cameras on Joburg roads, more than 6000 speeding violations were recorded on camera on New Year’s Day.
The Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) confirmed in a Tweet that speed cameras are back online after arresting seven motorists for speeding on New Year’s Day- including one motorist who drove at a speed of 189km/h in a 120km/h area.
All the suspects were detained at the Lanasia South SAPS and were each released on R1500 bail. They are expected to appear at the Lenasia court during the week.
Metro police spokesperson Xolani Fihla said their high-speed unit recorded a total of 6,312 cases of speeding on January 1 alone.
Of those, 2,816 were in Johannesburg (inner city) 771 in Roodepoort and 2,725 in the Sandton precinct.
Johannesburg’s speed cameras started working again on 1 January after the city signed a contract with Syntell to provide Advanced Law Enforcement and Cash Management Services last month.
MMC for Public Safety David Tembe, said the contract was already producing results.
Johannesburg motorists have not been receiving spending fines since May 2021, after the contract with the then service-provider ended.
Fihla confirmed that the City of Johannesburg has signed a new contract with Syntel (Pty) Ltd for three years.
According to Fihla, the contract was awarded to the service provider on December 5.
Gauteng metros have been losing millions of rands in revenue due to speed camera equipment not working for a couple of years. The city of Johannesburg had not issued any new speeding fines since May 2021. The speeding camera’s come back online just as numerous holidaymakers return to Gauteng, with multiple roads and freeways expected to be heavily congested this week.
Source: Sowetan Live, Business Tech, Times Live, image from Twitter: @jozifm