South Africa’s big smart policing plans

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced South Africa’s plans to adopt smart policing solutions to combat financial and violent crimes.

While giving his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, 6 February 2025, Ramaphosa said South Africa would follow the lead of other nations that have used modernised law enforcement and seen success.

“We want a nation in which everyone is safe,” Ramaphosa said.

He said government has decided to intensify Operation Shanela, which he noted had been successful in arresting suspects, recovering firearms, and seizing stolen vehicles.

Ramaphosa said government has seen the value of technology in fighting crime, as demonstrated by other nations who have used technology in law enforcement and made significant progress.

“We are working on adopting surveillance, analytics, and smart policing solutions for modern law enforcement,” he said.

The President also acknowledged the value of artificial intelligence (AI) in fighting financial crime, as demonstrated by the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

“By utilising artificial intelligence in its fraud risk detection and verification work, SARS has prevented the leakage of over R95 billion in impermissible refunds,” he said.

“It has recovered over R20 billion in revenue and dismantled an illicit tobacco and gold scheme.”

Major metros in Gauteng have already adopted more modern solutions to help identify and fight crime through partnerships with private companies.

In February 2024, Vumacam revealed that it had partnered with the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) to assist law enforcement in the province by providing access to its camera network and crime-fighting technologies.

It gave the GPG immediate access to its network of over 6,000 Vumacam cameras in Gauteng and provided access to partner cameras across South Africa, of which it has more than 5,000.

Its partner camera networks ensure an alert is triggered when the cameras spot a vehicle in another province in South Africa.

The partnership builds on Vumacam’s existing agreements with the public sector, including the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, resulting in an average of more than 400 monthly interceptions.

In October 2024, Vumacam chief commercial officer Michael Varney revealed that the system uses AI to detect unusual activity and notify security companies and law enforcement agencies.

The company had also recently densified its network of cameras in Gauteng, which he said had paid off and deterred active criminals in the area.

“Our network has been densified in specific areas. As soon as the network goes live, you then see the crime move out of the area,” said Varney.

“Although we are not everywhere, our plan is to continue to densify our network across crime hotspots specifically. We are definitely seeing the prevention of crime and the interception of a lot of the criminals that have been involved.”

The network of cameras uses AI through an analytic applied to feeds to identify unusual behaviour, such as people loitering around traffic lights for extensive periods.

“Depending on the standard operating procedure, we are able to dispatch the closest vehicle in the area to go see what is happening,” said Varney.