The Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Kazembe Kazebe has acknowledged errors in the country’s newly introduced traffic camera system, which has been sending traffic violation notices to motorists and people who do not own the vehicles identified in the messages.
Kazembe told Parliament that authorities had received complaints from members of the public who were receiving messages accusing them of traffic offences committed by vehicles with number plates similar to their own, or even vehicles they did not own.
He said preliminary evidence suggested that the system was making identification errors, possibly by missing or incorrectly recording a digit on a vehicle’s number plate.
The minister was responding to Member of Parliament Sibongile Maphosa, who raised concerns about people receiving traffic violation notifications on their mobile phones despite not owning the vehicles captured by the cameras.
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“Cameras are capturing the people who will be committing crimes on the road and our people are complaining because some messages are getting into our mobile phones showing number plates which look exactly like yours or sometimes you would not even have owned a car, a Lexus or whatever,” Maphosa said.
She questioned what measures the ministry was taking to address the problem, which has raised concerns about the accuracy of the system.
“You receive a message in your phone alleging that you have committed a crime using your car, yet you do not even have one. It looks like there is a problem because ZRP is sending those messages even to people who do not own those cars. What will be done to rectify that problem?”
Kazembe said the government had instructed the police to investigate the complaints and strengthen the verification process before traffic tickets were issued.
“It is true, we have evidence to suggest that the system is making mistakes, missing probably one digit,” he said.
He explained that the system was designed to include a validation process in which police officers review the video evidence before issuing a ticket, adding that failures in this process could be contributing to the errors.
“I am not trying to justify the errors, we take responsibility and we are attending to it as a matter of urgency,” Kazembe said.
He said he had raised the complaints with the Commissioner-General of Police and directed that they be addressed, adding that officers were already working to correct the problem.
Kazembe said motorists who received notifications could use the link provided in the messages to access video footage and verify whether the recorded offence involved their vehicles.
However, he acknowledged that this verification should ordinarily be conducted by police officers before tickets are issued.
The minister also said the system had processed approximately five million traffic violations, with between 10 and 20 reported errors.
“That is why it is giving you a link. It is providing you a link to connect and check the video if it is correct or not. However, that is supposed to be done by the police officer before the ticket is issued, so that is an area we are looking at internally. However, we have received about plus or minus five million violations and we have received these errors which are probably about 10 or 20.”
“I am not justifying that it has been rectified. On a scale or as a percentage, we want to believe that the system is probably 98% accurate or 99, but that does not justify those errors, so they are being attended to as I am speaking and I am glad and I am happy that we have received that feedback,’ he said.
The concerns were also raised over how the system would handle situations where police officers direct traffic, potentially requiring motorists to disregard ordinary traffic signals.
MP Perseviarance Zhou questioned what would happen when motorists were following instructions from police officers while cameras were recording traffic movements.
‘I want to ask, in traffic, if it is a policeman who is instructing and the camera is checking, what happens when it is a policeman who is directing traffic because I think there is an issue there,’ she said.
In response, Kazembe said video footage would provide evidence of police officers directing traffic, allowing validation officers to establish whether an apparent violation was justified before a ticket was issued.
He said the same verification process would apply during motorcades, where police officers may direct traffic and require motorists to move through controlled intersections.
However, MP Ropafadzo Makumire questioned why the system was being implemented before all its operational challenges had been addressed.
“I think they should start by perfecting this system because this system is robbing people. It is very good that the Minister has come up with a very brilliant idea, but you should perfect it because these cameras are sending us pictures that are not consistent with the crimes that they are attributing to us.”
“You should perfect the system; then it starts operating when we are satisfied that it is working properly. For now, I think you should tell us that it is a pilot project,” he said.
In addition, MP Lynette Karenyi also questioned whether people wrongly identified by the system would be compensated for the fuel and other costs incurred when travelling to have the errors corrected.
Responding, Kazembe said motorists could check the video evidence through the link provided in the notification without necessarily travelling to police stations or being forced to pay the fines.
He, however, did not directly address whether people who incurred expenses while seeking to correct erroneous notices would be compensated.
Defending the system, Kazembe said it was a home-grown technological solution developed by TelOne, a local telecommunications company, with government support.
He praised the initiative as an example of local innovation under the Education 5.0 model, while maintaining that authorities were taking responsibility for the reported shortcomings.
“This is a very good system and it has been done by the children of Zimbabwe. It is a home-grown solution,” he said.
He urged motorists to comply with traffic regulations, arguing that doing so would prevent them from receiving violation notices.
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