JMPD increases visibility following weekend races in Rosebank

The Johannesburg Metro Police said it is ramping up visibility on Jan Smuts Avenue in Rosebank, following incidents of street racing on the weekends.

Resident Rene Kilner said cars race up and down the road throughout the early hours of the morning, disrupting sleep and daily life.

She said that many residents are angry and frustrated because they feel that JMPD is not doing enough.

“When you live 500 metres from Jan Smuts, Bolton, or Oxford Road and cars are racing up and down from 12 in the morning… people get annoyed, and it impacts people’s lives.

“When one starts to phone JMPD, whose mandate it is to actually start taking care of these things, the phones are not answered, or they tell you that they don’t have a system to log the calls… frustration increasing exponentially,” Kilner said.

JMPD spokesperson Xolani Fihla said the department is aware of these incidents and it has been conducting periodic patrols and joint operations with the Rosebank SAPS in the area to deter reckless driving and illegal gathering.

“We are looking into intelligence-based operations so that we can find them in the act, and then we can arrest them… at the moment, our current patrols with blue lights are how we are handling it.”

To listen to Fihla in conversation with Jane Dutton, in for 702 and CapeTalk’s Mandy Wiener, click the audio player below: