Motorists were contacting the Johannesburg metro police’s new SMS information service at the rate of one a second at times on Wednesday to find out whether there were any unpaid fines or warrants of arrest against them.
”It’s like New Year’s Eve. It’s going crazy,” said metro police spokesperson Edna Mamoyane. There had been 28 000 inquiries by midday, she said.
”The service provider didn’t anticipate the volumes, and the system clogged up for a while. It’s turned into a completely different ball game to what we expected.”
With 3 000 people waiting for responses to the inquiries at one stage, some became frustrated.
Bandwidth will have to be increased to cope with the demand.
The service was jointly developed by the metro police, computer firm 2Big Mobile Applications and cellphone company Vodacom, and is part of the metro police’s R60-million integrated information management system.
The SMSs with a motorist’s identity number cost R5 each and are directed to an offender notification contact centre — on 36997 — staffed by Johannesburg metro police personnel.
Motorists are advised how to settle the outstanding fines and avoid further action. Their feedback is recorded in the system.
A first in South Africa, the service will be sold ”to any other municipality who wants it”, metro police director Derrick Masoek said on Tuesday. — Sapa