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Crime-hit Nelson Mandela Bay is betting on technology to fight back, with 360 new CCTV cameras, seven surveillance drones and more than 40km of fibre optic infrastructure deployed in the metro in a R27m security expansion unveiled on Thursday.
The third phase of the Mandela Bay Development Agency’s (MBDA) security infrastructure project was launched at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium control centre on Thursday, where officials said the technology would boost crime prevention, speed up emergency response times and protect critical infrastructure.
This network will extend to Stanford and Gail roads, the stadium precinct, North End, Schauderville, Algoa Park, Missionvale, KwaDwesi, Joe Slovo, Khayamnandi, Kempston Road, Walmer township, St George’s Park, Kings Beach and Happy Valley, and the City Hall precinct.
MBDA spokesperson Luvuyo Bangazi said the latest rollout would connect existing surveillance networks into a single integrated system, improving public safety while laying the groundwork for a smarter city.
“The 40km of fibre optic infrastructure will benefit the city, start to build towards a smart city, start to allow for additional services to be delivered, whether you’re talking about smart metering or management of the infrastructure in terms of electricity.”
MBDA interim chief executive Pierre Voges said Nelson Mandela Bay needed some fine-tuning in security to make people feel safe in the city.
“What I hope to do in my five months at the MBDA is to press the buttons around security, cleansing, maintenance and compliance.
“And today, it is just one of those buttons being pressed to ensure that normal, common people like me are safe in a clean environment, and that infrastructure is maintained.”
Deputy mayor Gary van Niekerk said crime was a serious issue in the metro.
“We have become the murder capital of SA.
“We are a metro of 1.3-million people, but there are only about 128 Metro Police officers.
“The ratio should be somewhere between one Metro Police officer to 125 people, but at the moment, it’s in the thousands.
“Our major challenge in our metro is safety, but the other big challenge that we have in our metro is vandalism.”
Van Niekerk said millions of rand were lost to vandalism every year.
“Technology is the only way to go to protect our infrastructure and make the city safe for our residents, as well as our visitors.”
Security systems integration company Afrisec Group’s chief operating officer, Johan Barnard, said the company’s fleet of seven drones would provide surveillance coverage across the metro.
“They are spaced about 5km apart, and the drones are used for active and reactive surveillance.
“Everywhere that we have deployed our drones, there is an immediate reaction that we get. We catch people immediately.
“Literally from day one, you catch illegal people, whether it’s cable theft, poaching, car theft, illegal dumping.
“Wherever something is occurring illegally, the drones sniff them out very easily.”
Barnard said the drones were housed in secret locations and deployed when needed, day or night.
“What is very important for these drones, and what makes it important for our reaction team, the police, and the guards on site, is that all the information that the drone sees gets relayed immediately to these people so they don’t go blindly into a specific scenario where they can get ambushed or hurt.
“This is a tool assisting the people on the ground.”
Barnard demonstrated the system from the stadium’s control room, where a drone launched from an undisclosed location flew over Walmer, streaming live footage that was clear enough to zoom in on vehicle number plates.
At the end of the briefing, Van Niekerk referenced the ongoing disagreement between himself and mayor Babalwa Lobishe over a recent letter he had written to co-operative governance MEC Zolile Williams accusing Lobishe of sabotaging service delivery.
One of his initiatives was a rapid-turnaround strategy focused on rehabilitating the metro’s 100 priority routes by repairing potholes, painting road markings, restoring faulty streetlights, curbing illegal dumping, clearing rubble, cutting grass, maintaining verges and improving the safety and cleanliness of key transport corridors.
Lobishe said earlier that she found Van Niekerk’s letter ridiculous and that many routes had been fixed.
Van Niekerk said he was shocked to read Lobishe’s response.
“I was shocked this morning to open the newspaper and read a comment that everything is fixed on all our main routes.
“The first thing that must be fixed is the safety of our 100 main routes.
“Once we have made our 100 main routes safe, then we can start with all our other infrastructure and programmes that we want to do.”
Meanwhile, the 360 CCTV cameras are equipped with number plate recognition, thermal imaging, infrared night vision and high-powered zoom capabilities.
The technology is designed to improve real-time surveillance, detect suspicious activity in all weather and lighting conditions, and strengthen crime prevention across the metro.
