The DA in eThekwini is concerned about residents’ safety as the city fails miserably to prevent, intercept, and monitor illegal activity.
Shocking figures were revealed at a recent finance, emergency and security services committee meeting on 23 February 2023, where the DA highlighted concerns about the delays in repairing CCTV cameras.
In response, Vincent Ngubane, the Head of Disaster Management, revealed that just 98 of the 499 CCTV cameras are operational and that the delays in repairs are due to fibre contract challenges.
This is an unacceptable excuse given that challenges with fibre contracts have been ongoing for several years’ now causing more cameras to be offline.
Even scarier is that Metro Police, which now runs all of the city’s CCTV cameras, has promised to reduce crime within six months of taking over this tool for fighting crime.
The question now is; how will this be accomplished when only 98 of the city’s 499 CCTV cameras are operational?
How will an under-resourced Metro Police Department protect us?
The DA will put pressure on the executive committee and council to expedite the process of ensuring that all 499 cameras are operational and manned appropriately in order to improve the status of safety in eThekwini.