By Kwezikazi Mjuza
South Africa’s corruption and crime statistics have been on anupward spiral motion throughout the years. Corruption within the government sector for one has been the most common with the public sector contributing with 65% of the corruptionstatistics. The South African Law enforcement accounts for a significant percentage of crime and corruption that is committed by civil servants.
Cape Town is celebrating a new milestone in measures taken to protect the public, Metro Police, Law Enforcement and Traffic officers. Cape Town’s Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis enthusiastically announced the new implementation of camera equipment that is being installed in police and traffic vehicles and also body cameras. 800 cameras are to be worn as part of uniform and 300 cameras are to be installed in vehicles. The budget for the newly implemented safety measure is sourced from the city’s R860 million safety and technology investment.
JP Smith, the City of Cape Town counsellor stated that “body worn cameras help with committing crime in various ways. Aside from gathering evidence as officers move around, these body cameras also act as a tool to gather information for court cases and legal proceedings. The cameras also help with ensuring that police officers remain professional and courteous in their engagement with members of the public”. He added that this equally protects the police from false claims by members of the public.
The implementation has been long coming as JP Smith claims that they have been working on the project for the past five years, however, precuring any kind of technology within the laws that govern local govern procurement was a challenge on its own. It took years of research and statistics to correctly implement this safety measure.
JP Smith claims that the City of Cape Town is keen on extending the technology to the South African Police Services in terms of the Safer City agreement that they have with SAPS.

Picture Credit: Western Cape Traffic Services.