The Gauteng government wants to use e-toll gantries for fighting crime in the province, while South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) offices will be used as license renewal facilities.

The gantry cameras will soon serve as tools to fight crime in Gauteng by detecting vehicles that are involved in criminality, the premier’s office confirmed.

The addition of gantries as a crime-fighting tool will be part of a project announced by Premier Panyaza Lesufi during his state of the province speech in February.

The project will also employ the likes of the hi-tech face and car recognition tools such as CCTVs, drones and even panic buttons installed in the communities.

Lesufi’s spokesperson, Vuyo Mhaga, told Pretoria Rekord the province had plans for the e-toll infrastructure to augment work done by the police.

He said discussions that would see the province sign a service delivery agreement with Sanral were still ongoing.

An agreement would detail the amount of Sanral facilities that would be used as license renewal offices after a need analysis was held.

Mhaga said these discussions would be finalised soon; however, he could not provide an exact date for the gantries’ new roles.

“It is safe to say that Gauteng traffic has access to them as we speak.”

Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona told Pretoria Rekord that Sanral had been in discussions with the Gauteng province’s Department of Transport and National Treasury.

Mona said Sanral could not confirm the Gauteng government’s plans as there was no agreement as yet.

“No agreement has been signed. We cannot confirm if the contents of a final service delivery agreement would allow for this.”

According to Gauteng MEC for Finance Jacob Mamabolo, the province was implementing the decision to end the e-toll system.

He, however, reaffirmed that the government would absorb the e-toll debt, which would be split between the national and the Gauteng provincial government.

This was despite motorists still receiving billing accounts.

“The minister of finance indicated that there is still work to be done to fully implement this decision.

“Once these engagements have been finalised, a memorandum of agreement will be concluded and proper feedback and an update will be given.”

Gauteng will increase its budget for fighting crime in the next three years.

Other expected crime-fighting tools include 400 new police cars and 6 000 recruits to monitor and police from May 1.