The stainless steel sculpture known as ‘Kite Boy’ serves as a painful reminder of the number of children lost to gang violence in the Northern Areas of Nelson Mandela Bay. (Photo: Deon Ferreira) As the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) prepares to support police operations in Nelson Mandela Bay’s violence-plagued Northern Areas, millions of rands’ worth of municipal crime-fighting technology that once helped secure arrests is sitting idle.
While political leaders promise the technology will be restored — most recently on 19 February — contract disputes, tender delays and apparent maintenance failures have left communities exposed at a time when gang violence has again escalated, prompting the extraordinary step of SANDF deployment.
Idle equipment
- ShotSpotter System: Once a vital tool for real-time gunshot alerts in Helenvale, the system has been offline since December 2023. Although it previously boosted arrest rates and reduced shootings, contract disputes and tender delays have left it dormant for more than two years.
- Mobile Surveillance Vehicle (MSV): This R6-million unit, acquired for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, has spent years gathering dust in a municipal depot due to inadequate maintenance. Equipped with high-resolution cameras and advanced sensors, an MSV can monitor activity around the clock in any weather or lighting conditions, making its absence a major gap in the metro’s crime-fighting arsenal.
- Emerging Tech: Despite mentions of drones and bodycams, these additions have yet to materialise in any functional capacity to protect exposed communities.
The mayoral committee member for safety and security, Luyanda Lawu, said the ShotSpotter system would be reactivated this year.
He said delays stemmed from disputes with a service provider.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Spotter-5.jpg "An example of the message that ShotSpotter sends after detecting that shots have been fired. (Photo: Deon Ferreira)")
“The service provider wanted to expand to other areas, but that was not part of the agreement. They requested a meeting with the city, but I declined to be involved, as I did not want to intervene in supply chain matters,” said Lawu.
Following a back-and-forth, he said, the safety and security standing committee had resolved to cancel the contract with the service provider and acquire a new one. A report on the process was expected at a committee meeting on 24 February, but the session was postponed due to a mayoral committee meeting.
Asked whether residents could expect the roll-out of the technology, Lawu responded, “Yes. That is a very important thing, given the situation with crime, especially in parts of the Northern Areas.”
He said repair work on the Mobile Surveillance Vehicle was almost complete, as it had been serviced out of town.
Farouk Jeptha, the chairperson of Concerned Citizens of PE, said, “The absence of the ShotSpotter has made people more vulnerable to attacks. When it was introduced, it wasn’t meant to be a final solution to gangsterism or shootings; it merely helped the police respond to incidents more quickly.”
He also raised concerns over the absence of the MSV. “We saw it once and never saw it again. They displaced it two or three years ago, and it’s probably rusting somewhere,” he said.
Jeptha criticised what he described as a lack of political will to reinstate the technology.
“The police do a lot of work fighting crime, but since ShotSpotter stopped working, they have been struggling against gangs. Even the gangs knew the system was active and that the police would arrive within minutes,” he said.
He added that political parties often speak about tackling crime but fail to restore resources like ShotSpotter.
“They either do not have the political will or they are just not interested. They always blame budgets and financial constraints, but we are not seeing the technology being used.”
Jason Grobbelaar, DA councillor and member of the safety and security committee, said bureaucratic excuses and a “lack of political will” among officials were preventing the technology from being implemented, despite its proven success in combating gang violence.
“They tell us they are working on it and that they will get it done soon, but then they are quick to blame the supply chain process for the delays,” said Grobbelaar. “They never said it wasn’t going to happen; we were repeatedly told it would be in place before Christmas, but nothing materialised.”
Grobbelaar said that after the ShotSpotter contract expired, the municipality launched a new tender process in 2024, which had been marred by delays — largely due to confusion between the municipality and the product’s supplier.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC_1029-copy.jpg "The DA’s Jason Grobbelaar. (Photo: Deon Ferreira)")
He pointed to the early success of ShotSpotter, noting that within the first 100 days of use, it had led to the arrests of 17 suspected gang members. “The success is there,” he said.
“People started feeling safer. Since the contract expired, we have been fighting to get it working again, but also to have it rolled out to other areas. We tested it in Helenvale, but it needs to be installed in other high-crime areas so that we can tackle crime there as well.”
Safety and security committee member and Good councillor Lawrence Troon said the committee had not met this year because meetings had been repeatedly postponed. DM