LISTEN: There are not enough pointsmen to cover the whole city ...
The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) says its mandate to attend to life-threatening crime prevents it from controlling traffic at intersections during load shedding.
This is due to a rise of unauthorised people controlling traffic in most intersections during load shedding or when the traffic lights are out.
JMPD maintains that their mandate to prioritise life-threatening crimes makes them fall short of officials to control traffic.
“We are doing our best to make sure that we try to cover most of the busy intersections within the City of Johannesburg.
“The challenge with our various duties [we have of] crime preventions, life or non-life threatening emergencies and unfortunately we can’t have our officers at every corner that’s why we find these unauthorised people taking advantage,” says Xolani Fihla, JMPD Spokesperson.
Fihla adds that more officials are now deployed to attend service delivery protests as most communities protest for electricity in winter.
“These [protests] leave others disadvantaged.”
He says the partnership with OUTsurance is still ongoing.
OUTSurance is helping the city with pointsmen to alleviate traffic during peak hours or load shedding.
POWER Digital
