More than two million road traffic violations have been recorded in Harare by newly installed traffic cameras, with offenders likely to start receiving their tickets from this week.
Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe said the cameras, a key component of the Electronic Traffic Management System, have been installed at 20 strategic intersections along major roads in the capital.
They detect speeding, failure to obey road signs, use of mobile phones while driving, and travelling without fastened seatbelts, among other breaches of traffic regulations.
The cameras are part of Phase One of the national Smart Traffic Management and Surveillance Programme being implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, with TelOne serving as the technical partner.
The Government intends to install more than 300 high-tech cameras in Harare before expanding the programme to other cities across the country.
Kazembe and Police Deputy Commissioner General Lorain Chipato last week led a delegation of senior police officers and Government officials on a tour of all 20 traffic surveillance sites and the Command and Control Centre at CID Headquarters.
In an interview with The Herald after the tour, Kazembe expressed satisfaction with the infrastructure, declaring Phase One now 99 per cent complete.
“We have toured all the sites that are supposed to be done in Phase One, and Phase One consists of 20 sites. I am happy that all the 20 sites are now ready,” said Kazembe. “I am happy with the infrastructure, and indeed, they have done a splendid job.”
Kazembe said the system had recorded about 2.3 million violations in the past month alone, up from around one million previously.
“Earlier on, we were talking of only 1 million incidents. And now they have recorded about 2.3 million violations already in the past month or so. Whilst those people have not been notified as yet, as you know, a crime is a crime, an offence is an offence, so the law will catch up with them. They will still have to pay those fines,” he said.
Kazembe said the system was comprehensive, allowing for filtering and generation of various reports by site, by violation and by vehicles.
He explained that not all detections automatically translate into offences, as a validation process is conducted at the Command Centre before tickets are issued.
“In the control room, there are officers who validate the detections. They go to the videos and see what you have done. They validate to say, is this a crime? Is this an offence? Was there a police officer? Was the traffic light working? So there is that validation. Once it’s validated, then it becomes an offence. Before validation, it’s just a detection,” he said.
He added that the system maintains an unalterable audit trail, recording the identity of every officer who logs in and validates violations, ensuring accountability and transparency.
“All the violations are in the database and are recorded, and now they are busy validating them. So any time from now, maybe starting from next week or the week after, notifications will be coming to those offenders to say, go and pay,” he said.
He added that offenders who wish to contest the charges could opt to go to court, with video evidence available to support prosecution.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply