admin
Blessings Chidakwa Municipal Correspondent
Harare City Council has started installing new surveillance cameras at traffic lights in the city centre to rein in traffic offenders and thus reduce congestion, although the cameras installed almost six years ago at two intersections have failed to make an impact.
The cameras are designed to “capture” motorists who impede the smooth flow of traffic.
It is envisaged that the cameras will assist police in identifying criminals in the city centre.
In 2014, council installed CCTV cameras at the intersection of Julius Nyerere Way and Jason Moyo Avenue, which have since been removed.
Four years later, Harare City and its parking unit, City Parking, embarked on another $2 million camera installation programme whose operation remains a mystery.
The local authority wanted to install monitoring and enforcement cameras at all intersections and along all routes to detect traffic violations.
Recently, Harare City Council said surveillance cameras were being installed as a pilot project at the corner of Jason Moyo Avenue and Simon Vengayi Muzenda Street, a busy intersection next to a the bus terminus with a three-way sequence of light changes.
Our news crew visited the site and noted that the new cameras had already been installed.
Harare City Council spokesperson Mr Michael Chideme said the earlier surveillance cameras installed at the corner of Julius Nyerere Way and Jason Moyo Avenue had been removed, but would not say why.
Once the installation of the monitoring and enforcement cameras is completed, controllers will ticket offenders from the comfort of their monitoring rooms.
Harare City intends to link the new system with Zinara and the Central Vehicle Registry so that they can follow up on the issued tickets for violating traffic regulations.
The installation of street cameras has largely been successful in developed countries, while they have also worked in other developing nations.
South Africa has decentralised from the city centre by installing cameras in Johannesburg suburbs.
The cameras have an impressive high-tech licence plate recognition feature that scans the plates of about 480 passing vehicles per minute.
Online Reporter