The Citizen reports that the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) on Monday appointed 200 pointsmen to help alleviate traffic congestion, but the public has already raised concerns.

Citizens have taken to social media to ask why are some of them are not wearing uniforms and why pointsmen are conducting traffic even at intersections where the traffic lights are working. According to JMPD spokesperson Xolani Fihla, all legal pointsmen are easily identifiable by their unique uniforms: “They wear blue shirts with reflective jackets that have Johannesburg Metro Police Department written on it, and they also have white gloves and caps with the city’s crest on it.” He said any person conducting traffic while not wearing a uniform should be reported to the authorities. Fihla explained that the deployment of the official pointsmen to busy intersections was one of the department’s strategies to get unofficial pointsmen off the road. “With them being deployed, high risk intersections will be covered. But we still have some intersections not covered as yet, which is why our officers have been tasked to arrest whoever is not authorised to be there.” Addressing concerns that the pointsmen continued with their duties at intersections that have traffic lights that worked, Fihla said they did this to ease congestion. Without addressing the safety concerns that this created, Fihla said the traffic controllers were unable to access the switches that turned the traffic lights off.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Enkosi Selane at The Citizen

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