Free ride for Durban speedsters

SPEED TRAP CAMERA HIDDEN IN BRUSH NEXT TO ROAD M3 NEAR ROSEBANK OFF RAMP. PIC DENZIL MAREGELE 3/3/05 Enforcer: speed trap cameras like this one, hidden in bushes on the M3 near the Rosebank off-ramp, have proven highly successful, says the city traffic department.

SPEED TRAP CAMERA HIDDEN IN BRUSH NEXT TO ROAD M3 NEAR ROSEBANK OFF RAMP. PIC DENZIL MAREGELE 3/3/05 Enforcer: speed trap cameras like this one, hidden in bushes on the M3 near the Rosebank off-ramp, have proven highly successful, says the city traffic department.

Published Oct 9, 2015

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Durban - Contract bungles continue to scupper metro police operations, with revelations that a speed timing contract has not been awarded.

For two months, Durban motorists have been merrily breaking the speed limit with impunity on some of the city’s most dangerous routes while the metro police have operated without hi-tech cameras since the municipality’s contract with an unnamed company providing the service has not been renewed.

The city said it was following supply chain procedures in the appointment of a new service provider. It was not clear how long that would take.

This comes after a Mercury report on Thursday about how the department had been left hamstrung last week by the non-renewal of a vehicle-towing contract. The city police had been told in an internally circulated e-mail that the contract had not been renewed. The city told The Mercury the metro police were to use their own tow trucks to tow small vehicles and the city fleet or the Road Traffic Inspectorate for towing of heavy-duty vehicles.

Westville councillor Chris van den Berg said he had been told about the lack of speed timing devices by a concerned metro policeman.

“As I understand it, a contract for speed timing expired,” he saod. “They belong to this unnamed company for the municipality to utilise. The contract expired about two months ago.”

According to his knowledge, he said, the metro police did not have any cameras at this point.

“They don’t have any equipment to do speed timing.”

Municipal spokeswoman Tozi Mthethwa said metro police were “currently … doing speed camera enforcement”.

But a senior metro police officer, who asked to remain anonymous, said the unit was doing “minimal, if any” speed timing operations.

‘SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES ‘

Mthethwa said supply chain management procedures were being followed for the appointment of a new service provider.

She did not respond to questions about how many calibrated and functional mobile speed enforcement devices the city had.

“When the previous speed timing camera contract ended, all the cameras used by the service provider became the municipality’s property,” was all she would say.

According to a metro policeman, who also asked not to be identified, “We had a contract for electronic enforcement, not necessarily only speed timing. That contract came to an end. We have no back office support for any of the speed cameras.

“In other words, the actual back office to bring the images in cameras to the speed timing division as well as the cameras that were left from the old contract for maintenance,” he said.

The policeman said he understood that before the contract had lapsed, the department had advertised a tender for the service.

“That apparently wasn’t awarded because there was an appeal against the process and the appeal was upheld.”

Van den Berg said he would write to the municipality demanding an explanation. He said the unavailability of the cameras would affect the city’s efforts to uphold traffic by-laws in residential areas, leading to fatalities.

“There’s also this problem that speed timing can only be done in certain areas, under certain conditions … Everybody wants speed humps now because there’s no enforcement for speeding,” he said.

Speed timing operations are conducted at 72 “authorised” Durban sites. These include highways, freeways, main roads and urban roads, where the stopping of vehicles is considered dangerous to the public.

IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi blamed the managerial hiccups on “managerial squabbles” plaguing the metro police.

“The leadership at metro police has become so entrenched in internal ANC fights they are now sabotaging each other, which is un- acceptable.”

The Mercury

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