Pretoria - The City of Tshwane’s CCTV cameras may soon go live again.
MMC for Community Safety Grandi Theunissen told Pretoria News that his department was working on reviving the system in the next financial year.
Last year, the City made it clear that it did not have a budget for the cameras, although it acknowledged the important role they played, more especially regarding security.
The cameras used to be installed around numerous spots in Pretoria.
Theunissen said while the City's Budget was in the works, the department was making provisions to have the cameras placed as an item on the Budget. "However, I will only speak about this in length in the coming week because this is going to be a broader thing than just the cameras.
"We can definitely say we are planning on having them working in the new financial year, but there are some aspects we are also working on because this is going to be bigger than the cameras.“
He said funding was a crucial part of everything that needed to be looked at to make this a reality because with a Budget, one could only wish for certain projects to be accommodated unless there was specific funding acquired for them.
According to Pretoria Central police station spokesperson, Captain Augustinah Selepe, the cameras used to play a big role in evidence collection in crimes that were common in Pretoria like theft out of motor vehicles.
She said the police could also use the cameras for during crime prevention and surveillance, whereby suspicious behaviour would be identified and necessary action could be taken to curb crime.
“The cameras used to help, because we could see the faces of criminals and approach media houses with their photos and help to identify them,” Selepe said.
Common crimes in this category include stealing of laptops, bags and anything else criminals can sell for cash.
This includes theft involving motor vehicles, such as criminals stealing the lights, mirrors and mirror covers of vehicles parked, especially of Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen vehicles.
Evidence from cameras was also useful in the case of smash-and-grab incidents.
Pretoria News