CCTV cameras to monitor traffic lights in Joburg

The public-private partnership will see the traffic lights along the busy Winnie Mandela Drive fitted with backup power units in the event of a power outage in the area.

The campaign will also see the installation of CCTV cameras at intersections to alert authorities when motorists knock down traffic lights. 

The pilot project was launched in Fourways on Wednesday.

The partners include Johannesburg Roads Agency, Monte Casino, Steyn City, Fourways Mall, Indaba Hotel, and Vodacom.

Transport MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela said in 2023 alone, the department spent over R30 million in repairing traffic lights at some 400 intersections due to theft and vandalism

"When traffic lights do not work, when there's traffic congestion, when we don't do road maintenance, that affects our economy.

"From our side, we tried. I think in the past year, we spent around 30 million and this is money down the drain. Because we come and fix, after six hours they come again and steal the cable.

"We should not only end in fixing the traffic lights, but we should take control of what is happening on our streets,”  Diale-Tlabela said. 

Meanwhile, Gauteng Portfolio Committee on Transport has also raised concern over the increasing number of traffic lights knocked down by motorists in the province.

Committee Chairperson Greg Schneemann said the culprits should be held accountable.

"We are concerned about the number of traffic signals that are being knocked down by motorists. Those robots get knocked down, and they just get left there, and nobody is held accountable.

"We think that at some stage, there'll have to be a serious look at how motorists who are disobeying the laws of the road, who are driving recklessly

"And the state then has to bear the costs of repairing and replacing that infrastructure. And so it's something that we're exploring, we've had discussions, and it's something that we think has to be looked at urgently," he added.

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