Joburg City manager, Dr Ndivho Lukhwareni said in a statement that the City of Johannesburg is currently engaging the service provider of the OUTsurance Pointsmen with the intention of extending the contract on a month-to-month basis for a period not exceeding six months. This while the City wraps up its supply chain management process for the award of a new contract.
Lukhwareni said, “We would like to sincerely apologise to our residents for the miscommunication regarding this issue and any inconvenience and frustration caused by traffic congestion in their absence.”
“It is also important for our residents to know that besides the Outsurance Pointsmen, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) deploys on average 300 JMPD officers daily to manage traffic covering 55 identified spots and 89 school points. In addition to this, the JMPD deploys over 150 traffic wardens daily to deal with the Joburg inner-city traffic which has escalated whilst the M2 highway is under maintenance,” said Lukhwareni.
Lukhwareni also said that the JMPD will be increasing its efforts while the contract extension is being finalised. In addition, the City is nearing the finalisation of its competitive bidding process to appoint private partners to enhance traffic management services in the City.
“The City of Johannesburg prides itself on being transparent and accountable. We are committed to informing the public once this process is completed and we humbly request our residents’ patience during this process. It is important to understand that we work within a highly regulated environment, and even though this is a free service to the City, due process in terms of our Supply Chain Management Policy must be followed.”
Lukhwareni said that the City has held a private-public-partnership contract with Traffic Free Flow (TFF) (Pty) Ltd, who is mainly sponsored by OUTsurance, to provide additional traffic pointsmen alongside the JMPD. These traffic pointsmen are trained by the JMPD before being deployed on our roads.
“There can be no doubt that these traffic pointsmen have become a major part of traffic management in the city and are loved by many residents. This is a tradition we wish to see continued. On behalf of the City of Johannesburg and the JMPD, I want to thank all the traffic pointsmen for their hard work and contribution to making our roads safer and in the process, saving our residents many valuable hours in traffic. We hope to get all traffic pointsmen back on our roads as soon as possible,” said Lukhwareni.
Residents are encouraged to use our 24-hour traffic hotline 080 872 3342 to report any traffic-related problems and 011 375 5911 to report any emergencies.
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