Joburg CCTV not in operation

CONTRACT CANCELLED: CAMERAS ARE UNMONITORED

No prosecutions as council is busy putting out a tender to service providers. Moneyweb

The CCTV system that contributed to a drastic reduction in crime in the heart of Joburg is virtually useless following the cancellation of a contract with a service provider and the relocation of the control room, several sources have told Moneyweb.

Photos and video footage show that the CCTV cameras are virtually unmonitored and sources say no recordings are being made. The recordings of incidents are crucial in prosecuting crime caught on camera.

This includes the cameras mayor Herman Mashaba launched in Vilakazi Street, Soweto, about a month ago, aimed at reducing crime in the street that tourists flock to visit the houses of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.

Luyanda Longwe, stakeholder manager in the office of the member of the mayoral committee for public safety, Michael Sun, texted: “Services of Omega Risk Solutions came to an end April 31, 2017. The contract termination date was April 31, 2017. No contract is currently in place and the city is in the process with a bid specification process to go out to tender. The IOC centre is managed and monitored by members of Joburg Metro Police Department and once we go out on tender the city will appoint a successful service provider to maintain the system. The system assists officers identifying possible crime in areas were cameras are placed. This is based on stats received from the police.”

The IOC centre Longwe refers to is the Intelligent Operations Centre at the metro police headquarters. The CCTV control room was previously located in Rissik Street, but was relocated to Martindale earlier this year.

Longwe maintains metro police officers monitor the cameras and manage the system at the IOC, but sources strongly deny that. Earlier this week, a live video transmission was seen from the IOC where only one of the 29 consoles was manned.

There were no supervisors or on-site metro police presence with the authority to dispatch officers to any incident picked up on camera. There is no fibre infrastructure yet to connect the 400 cameras with the IOC.