Speedsters in Johannesburg can celebrate because the municipality has not had a contract in place for the management of traffic cameras since May 2021- and there’s no indication there'll be one any time soon.
This means that drivers who break the speed limit are not captured on the cameras and that the city’s revenue collection plummeted to only R2.6m in August for fines relating to parking tickets and other by-law infringements.
This was revealed during the first day of a two-day council meeting where councillors debated the municipality’s financial report ending August this year.
“The speed contract has expired and a new contract is still not in place yet. JMPD (Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department) could only recognise revenue on by-laws [such as] illegal dumping, illegal connection, land invasions,” the report said.
So, as the country edges closer to the festive season, one of the busiest times in terms of revenue collection, reckless drivers will not be caught speeding. .
Adding to Johannesburg’s traffic woes are an additional 5 000 delegates expected at the ANC’s national conference next month.
Meanwhile, Joburg’s finances have come under sharp scrutiny after car rental firm Avis recalled about 2 500 vehicles from the JMPD’s fleet after its contract expired three weeks ago.
However, earlier this week the multi-party coalition government assured residents that its JMPD fleet would be back on patrol.
Reacting to the city’s expenditure, FF+ councillor Cornels Boer said there were some worrying items which include low capex expenditure in July considering it related to service delivery.
At the end of August, Joburg had spent only R334m of its R7.7bn capital budget.
“Money owed to the city is standing at R43bn and we know the panel of attorneys contract appointed to collect money... that contract has lapsed. Why is appointing a panel of attorneys getting so bad?
“Our contract for speeding fines is not in place. The third contract outstanding is [for a] fund manager. Every single month we’re losing money because we don’t have a fund manager. In August we lost R43m. We really need to get a fund manager on board.
“Our income on electricity is always less than what we pay to Kelvin and Eskom. In August the picture was even worse. Every month we’re losing money on Eskom and that’s all at the cost of service delivery. Why is the city getting less money on electricity? Load-shedding has a big impact as well,” Boer said.
EFF councillor Raymond Nkosi said the municipality was making too many excuses about why it had missed its own targets and urged the city to find solutions to improving revenue.
Finance MMC Julie Suddaby said the speed cameras, fund manager and panel of attorney were at various stages of supply-chain management (SCM) processes.
“We are talking to National Treasury next week to review our of SCM policy that we hope to present next year and we’re hoping that policy will provide greater oversight and input into the SCM policy,” she said.
During yesterday’s meeting the council once again rejected a motion to apply for a R2bn loan from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), which the ANC and its partners had approved on October 27 when they were still in power.
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