CoJ admits to acting without legal framework on park’s private camera surveillance

The City of Johannesburg has admitted to acting without any legal framework in allowing private camera surveillance at the Lonehill Dam Park, sparking concerns around the rights and privacy of children as the camera was filming the facility’s play area.

According to the City’s Parks and Zoo (JCPZ) department, the security benefits of the privately operated closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera system with plate recognition technology was allowed for security reasons and that its benefits outweighed individual concerns.

“Currently there is no legislation in place specifically addressing the installation of CCTV cameras except for the Constitution and the Right to Privacy. This means that before one installs CCTV cameras you have to do stakeholder engagement and the camera may not be facing into any private property. The Lonehill Residential association had extensive stakeholder engagements, public meetings and a survey done before installation of CCTV cameras,” spokesperson, Jenny Moodley, said.

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She said JCPZ “permitted” the installation of the CCTV camera based on, among others, the majority of residents in support of the camera, that it did not face any private property and had a signage alerting park users to its presence.

According to Moodley, monitoring would be done by an external company as JCPZ had no such capability.

“The camera would be monitored off-site by Fidelity Security Services at their black screen monitoring facility that has bank-clearance level security (meeting all JRA’s requirements for the public security cameras as well as POPI Act requirements),” she said.

Without a legislative framework for private surveillance in public spaces, civil rights organisation Right2Know Campaign (R2K) has argued that not only JCPZ acted illegal but that the camera raised concerns on the potential danger the system to the children’s right to privacy.

“City Parks does not have any authority to permit any recording or video surveillance. There is no legislative framework for the city parks approving this…specifically our concern is around children, their rights and the rights of parents to consent on the image capturing, use and storage. Public surveillance versus child safety. Without a legal frame for private surveillance, there is no way to ensure that the collected footage did not end up with paedophile rings…,” R2K activist, Gavin Borrageiro, said.

He charged that The Children’s Act and United Nation’s guidelines on child safety was seemingly ignored in the City Parks’ rationale, saying parental consent was paramount, irrespective of resident consultation, as not all visitors live within the area.

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Borrageiro said this was like installing a cameras in Zoo Lake or Emmerentia dam without considering all affected persons and that deep fakes, child trafficking and other child related crimes were prevalent, globally and the United Nations has taken a strong position on protecting children

“The Lonehill issue sparks the debate of protecting children in public through parental consent versus the entitled few whom believe their rights supersede all other citizens. A nature reserve is situated next to the dam and therefore the cameras impede on all public space users,” he said.

Joan van Niekerk, founder and director of Childline SA, said of concern to her was whether the people handling the children’s footage were screened against the child protection register.

“They could be the ones actually trafficking and abusing the children. So one has to ask the Johannesburg municipality, was every person that has access to this footage screened against the child protection register and if they were not, this is a concern. The other thing. How will this particular footage be dealt with? Will it be deleted, stored in a safe place because what you are collecting are images of children,” she said.

Van Niekerk said public spaces were increasingly being watched, with cameras springing up on the streets of Johannesburg’s wealthy suburbs, and that children walk on the streets.

She said there was a need to balance the safety of children and their rights, saying perhaps signs should be put up alerting parents to the camera at the park so they could decide whether to let their children play there.

Fidelity legal manager, Ansie Oost, referred questions to the Lonehill Residents Association, saying “we work under instruction of the LRA”.

Shelly Miller, of the LRA, said their manager, Keith Rampton, would respond to questions but had not done so.

siphom@citizne.co.za

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