Internal conflict stalls Durban metro police takeover of eThekwini’s lucrative CCTV network

The ability to decrease crime in South Africa’s second-largest city is allegedly being hampered by recalcitrant employees and managers. This has delayed the handing over of control of eThekwini’s extensive CCTV system, and its R100 million a year installation and maintenance contracts, to the Durban Metro Police Service.

While the full digital crime-fighting ambitions of the metro police are in limbo, community policing forums and residents continue to expand parallel networks of cameras at their own expense. They share the content of these with private security and, informally, with metro police and the South African Police Service (SAPS), when asked.

The control and monitoring of the city’s 519 cameras is the purview of the disaster management unit but should already have been in control of the metro police, as mandated by the city manager well over a year ago.

Durban Metro Police Commissioner Sibonelo Mchunu told the Mail & Guardian that his staff were “ready” for the takeover and the cameras had been included in the metro police’s procurement plan.

On Tuesday, KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi told broadcaster eNCA that SAPS was also in talks with the city about metro police having “better control of the cameras, so that they are used for law enforcement more than disaster”. He said the number of cameras needed to be increased.

Should law enforcement take charge of the CCTV network, Mkhwanazi said, response times to crimes would improve. He made the comments during an operation at Durban’s infamous Point area.  

At an anti-crime summit earlier this month, Mkhwanazi said for the past financial year, 40% of crimes committed in KwaZulu-Natal were in eThekwini. In 2022, former eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda put that number at 50%.  

Mchunu refused to respond to questions about why the shift had stalled, but other metro police and city sources, who are not authorised to speak to the media and so cannot be named, said having the cameras under disaster management meant actively looking for crime on the streets was “secondary” to “looking for potential disasters”.

As things stand now, said one high-ranking city employee, if a camera operator sees a crime in progress, they must alert the police, who would then have to take an affidavit from the operator. 

Should the operator have to appear in court, there is reluctance and “fear of reprisal” because the operator is not an officer and has not been trained in appearing in court and giving evidence.

Another source said disaster management staff had been “intentionally misinformed” about the changeover and “led to believe” they would lose their jobs when the metro police took charge.

“There is a lot of gossip about the changeover, which makes people run to their unions, which is also why the process has stalled,” said a metro employee who asked to remain anonymous. “Even when they are guaranteed they will still be employed by the city, they don’t trust that.”

Said another: “Managers are scared they may be demoted if moved to other departments from disaster management, so they are also stalling the process.”

But the biggest impediment to the takeover of the network, according to all the sources, was the potential for corrupt employees and managers to “feed” off the “very lucrative” tenders that accompany the CCTV cameras.

“Because the cameras are with disaster management, there is the ability to use section 36 [of the city’s supply-chain management policy, which allows deviations] for what can be [touted as] legitimate emergencies,” one said.

Section 36 allows for emergency contracts to be awarded, without going to tender, for no more than three months at a time.

Opposition parties have long exposed the municipality’s abuse of section 36.

Last year, then Democratic Alliance (DA) eThekwini deputy leader Billy Mzamo (now an MP) said the city had awarded 20 Durban Solid Waste refuse collection tenders worth R144.8 million, via section 36, in just 120 days.

The sources said that under eThekwini’s new ANC mayor Cyril Xaba there had been “no interference” in tenders “unlike before” and the hope was that he would allow authorities to “finally” root out corruption.

Mchunu told the M&G his budget could accommodate 100 trainee law enforcement officers (peace officers) to operate the cameras, who would be supervised by metro police captains. Should the operators see a crime being committed, the captains would be able to give real-time orders in the control centre and on the ground, he said.

This is in line with eThekwini’s smart policing plan, which “we are all waiting for and which will increase safety in the city”, Mchunu added.

The plan, to be implemented in phases, will cost the city R300 million and will include facial-recognition cameras, drones, dashboard cameras for vehicles, a mobile police station for rapid deployment and body cameras for metro officers.

The city’s CCTV network is a bone of contention with opposition parties and residents. In December, DA councillor Sharmaine Sewshanker said a report brought before the city’s safety, emergency and security committee, on which she sits, showed that only 14% of the municipality’s cameras were functional. 

In the same month, then mayor Kaunda embarked on a public relations exercise at the CCTV control room, where he said the city had spent R100 million to repair and upgrade the network, with the central business district taking priority. Cameras in other areas were still to be repaired and upgraded, he said.

According to a presentation made to the municipality’s security committee this month, only 319 cameras out of a total of 519 were working last month, leaving 200 offline. Of the working cameras, 272 were in the central and beachfront area, which has 290 cameras installed.

In the south of the metro, only 78 cameras were working out of a total of 111. In the north, only 21 cameras were working out of 63, and in the west, only 28 were working out of 55.

According to a report presented at the same committee meeting, most of the incidents viewed on the cameras (761) were traffic related.

But when contacted on Wednesday, the head of the city’s disaster management unit, Vincent Ngubane, disputed the numbers, saying: “I am in charge of this department, and those numbers are wrong. We have 400 cameras operational out of 519. [In the beachfront and inner-city area] we have 98 operational all the time.”

Ngubane said local businesses had been used to supply, install and commission the cameras on three-year contracts. The city spent “about R100 million a year” for maintenance and installation, he said.

Asked if he agreed that the CCTV network should be moved to the control of metro police, Ngubane said: “I don’t have a problem with that, as long as it’s a strategic decision by the city. If the cameras have to move, so be it. Someone else can take charge.”

While the foot-dragging continues, private security companies, residents, neighbourhood watches and community-policing forums are closing the gaps with automatic number-plate recognition cameras and high-definition CCTV cameras.

With these erected on private property, but often overlooking exits and entrances to public roads and areas, metro police and the SAPS often request access to footage when looking for evidence of crimes.

Durban-based NCAM, one of several local players in a massive industry, has installed 700 cameras throughout the province, the vast majority in eThekwini’s Westville area, and has almost 2 000 nationally.

According to owner Werner Hendrikse, of the 700 cameras in KwaZulu-Natal, about half were installed for private security companies and half for residents, shopping centres, churches, schools and so on.

Unlike the city’s cameras, NCAM footage is stored on cloud servers, making tampering more difficult.

“We work with metro police and SAPS and always refer them back to where the incident occurred [if they are looking for footage]. Access is strictly controlled [by our clients].”