Note to Editors: Attached please find a soundbite in English from Michael Waters MPL here.
The Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) has spent more than R124 million installing Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras across the province, yet approximately 28% of the CCTV network is currently not working. This puts our residents’ lives in danger as law enforcement officers will be unable to effectively combat crime and improve public safety.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the Gauteng MEC for e-Government Bonginkosi Dhlamini, to urgently restore all non-functional CCTV sites, explain why so many cameras failed, strengthen protection and maintenance systems and ensure value for money for taxpayers.
In a written reply to questions posed by the DA to MEC Dhlamini in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) it was revealed that 960 CCTV cameras have been installed across Gauteng and that R124 505 478 has already been spent on this project.
The MEC also indicated that 89 CCTV sites are currently non-functional and these failed sites affect 269 cameras.
This means that more than one in every four CCTV cameras installed by the Gauteng Government is currently compromised.
This comes at a time when residents are in dire need for crime prevention measures. This province cannot afford a CCTV system where such a significant portion of the network is offline.
According to the MEC the cameras are not working due to water-damaged batteries, vandalism and faulty inverters.
This raises concerns regarding maintenance planning, infrastructure protection, resilience of the system and whether sufficient preventive measures were implemented from the outset. Crime does not stop because government cameras are offline.
In addition, the department admitted that maintenance costs have already exceed R5.1 million and the annual maintenance costs are projected to range between R12 million and R15 million going forward. Gauteng residents deserve a CCTV system that works; not expensive infrastructure left vulnerable to weather damage, vandalism, and technical failures.
The Democratic DA Gauteng supports the expansion of technology-driven crime prevention initiatives, but taxpayers cannot continue paying hundreds of millions of rand for systems that are not properly maintained and protected.
A DA led Gauteng Provincial Government would immediately fix all the CCTV sites that are not working and ensure regular maintenance of cameras in the province.