Real time traffic offence monitoring system in Q2 ...

Real time traffic offence monitoring system in Q2 2023 as demo shows 40% infringement in Harare

A demo monitoring of 2500 drivers over a two hour period within Harare CBD showed 1000 committing traffic offences and Government will soon have a proper system in place.

The 40 percent violation rate was revealed by Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe at the 2022 Senior Officers Conference this week.

“Everything will be computerised, it will make it easy for us to detect crime and it will bring efficiency into our service delivery. It will also bring revenue.The system that we are talking about is going to be deployed and I promise you that by the time we get to April-June next year, we will be having this system in the country,” said Minister Kazembe.

He said the project is already in process.

“This was approved by the Cabinet which will see the three departments; police, immigration and civil Registry integrated on one platform. The cameras will automatically detect traffic offences such as drinking while driving and so on

Minister Kazembe said the demo had revealed a high level of disregard for traffic rules.

“There was a company that came and did some demonstration to show how traffic management works and the pilot project which was done along Samora Machel road to show how many traffic offences were being committed every hour. Surprisingly there were 1 000 violations in two hours out of 2 500 vehicles,” Minister Kazembe said.

He said that Government could make money out of the law breaking drives.

“So we can safely say just in Harare alone, there is a possibility of making US$100 000 in one hour if we charge these traffic offenders,” Minister Kazembe.

The minister said this will also remove strife between law enforcement agents and the public as police as traffic policing will be digitised.

“Once we deploy these, police won’t bother you on the roads because their welfare will be well taken care of. They won’t have any reason to be asking for money at roadblocks as the system will now be bringing revenue.”

Lawlessness on Harare roads has become normal with pirate taxi operators perceived at the worst offenders.

Offences include picking and dropping passengers at undesignated points, driving against oncoming traffic, using the turning lane when one intends to proceed straight ahead, driving into an intersection that one will not be able to clear, turning at prohibited points and going through red lights.

Private drivers and those in charge of authorised public transport vehicles are also sometimes guilty of the same offences.

Such behaviour often results in snarls and log jams turning roads all over into a proper traffic jungle.

Zimbabwe Republic Police and municipal traffic police have been having endless campaigns and raids to bring order, but selective application of the law driven by bribe taking has meant that some offenders operate with impunity.

A number of people including police officers have lost their lives during such operations as some errant drivers refuse to obey instructions to stop.

Minister Kazembe did not give details on capacity of the system that was tested but specifications like number plate recognition and visual capture of infringement are some basics.

A digitised monitoring system that will reduce capacity for human manipulation of law enforcement could just be the stick that will whip all drivers into compliance with the traffic laws of the country and the by-laws of the city.