Soweto residents and school pupils are reeling this morning after the senseless and highly irresponsible slaying of four school pupils and injury of a further three in Mdlalose Street between Protea Glen and Protea North at around 4pm Monday. They are not alone. This horrific incident was as a result of alleged drag racing that went wrong in a high density area close to a school where no Metro Police were anywhere near the school.
It is interesting to note that of all of the authorisations for camera based speed trapping in the Soweto Magisterial district granted to the JMPD by the Director of Public Prosecutions, not one such authorisation exists for Mdlalose Street and it is interesting to note that of the 50 odd authorised sites in Soweto, very few are located in high pedestrian traffic high volume areas and fewer yet anywhere near a school. Fixed speed cameras which force a slow down are also the least common means of camera speed trapping, being outnumbered by mobile – manned cameras by around 10 to 1. This anomaly is not limited to Soweto and exists in exactly the same form everywhere throughout the JMPD’s operational area, strongly supporting the claim that speed prosecution by camera is revenue driven and nothing else.
This is not to say that a speed camera would have helped in yesterday’s situation, just as they rarely do in similar situations – it is no good fining people a month or more after the fact – especially where they do indeed cause a collision or worse. The fact is that the JMPD and other traffic authorities, including the Department of Transport refuse to see the logic in this argument and still choose to utilise camera trapping instead of the “traditional” stopping of speedsters, most probably because the revenue generated by stopping motorists for speed offences is severely hampered by the time it takes to issue a physical fine at the scene and the volumes are simply not high enough.
Where physical stop speed operations are set up from time to time, these are usually on wide stretches of road where road conditions (width, quality etc.) do not seem to justify the speed limit and no schools or other high pedestrian volume areas exist. By far the most prolific incidence of these exercises in Johannesburg take place in Main Road, Kyalami, which sports a wide road with two lanes in each direction, separated by an equally wide median dividing the two. Offenders are arrested and driven or escorted at speeds in excess of 120 km/h (in 60km/h zones) to police cells where they are jailed for upwards of twelve hours and then appear in court the next day.
Instead of setting up fine collection road blocks in rush hour traffic and causing traffic jams, hiding in bushes photographing alleged speedsters and otherwise abandoning their responsibilities to the Citizens of the Johannesburg Metropolitan areas, the JMPD (and every other traffic authority) should be deploying Metro/Traffic Police Officers to each and every school at all times when high pedestrian traffic is to be expected. i.e. at opening and closing times.
Our hearts go out to the families and friends of the deceased students and we trust that the Magistrate concerned will meet out the harshest sentence to the accused. We will be watching this case with keen interest and hope that these deaths and injuries will not have been in vain. We live in the hope that the JMPD (and other traffic authorities) will wake up and realise that they have a duty to “protect and serve” all of us, not “hide and photograph”. Remember always, your children may be next to fall victim to the traffic police’s apparent unwillingness to do their duty.
Best Regards,
Howard Dembovsky
National Chairman – Justice Project South Africa
Mobile: +27 (0) 82 418 6210
Fax: +27 (0) 86 647 3293
Website: www.jp-sa.org
“Evil can only triumph where good people do nothing”