By Mbulelo Baloyi and Fiona Gounden

It's official - many Durbanites are speed freaks who are not shy to drive at speeds of more than 200km/h within the city limits. Even the threat of jail doesn't deter them.

eThekwini city manager Michael Sutcliffe revealed this as he defended the use of the South Korean-made digital speed trapping device known as the Trapeace Photolaser, which has become the nemesis of thousands of speeding motorists on the metro's motorways.

He was responding to what he termed "the irresponsible statement" attributed to the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industries chief executive officer Prof Bonke Dumisa, who said in a front-page article published in The Independent On Saturday this month that laser speed cameras were simply maximising revenue generation for the city.

Sutcliffe said it was unfortunate that Dumisa had made such statements - the municipality rejected his claims.

"One expects people in responsible positions to first seek to establish the facts before making prominent pronouncements like this, which are misleading and pander to those who think we should not implement the law."

He said the municipality had introduced the digital speed trapping technology because it was far more efficient than previous systems.

"The system is used to monitor hundreds of sites throughout the city, and from that monitoring, specific areas are prioritised for speed trapping.

"Let me indicate some of the results from more than 120 sites which we monitored before focusing on the zones where speeding was well outside the norm. Digital machines were set at speed zone limits of 60km, 70km, 80km, 100km and 120km. Speeds were recorded and, just to indicate the problem we have in our city, we found speeds exceeding 160km/h in all five zones."

Based on this, said Sutcliffe, Metro Police then focused on specific zones for enforcement.

"It is important to recognise that we carry out speed timing in all areas and speed zones and then focus on problem areas."

He conceded that the municipality was now receiving more income from fines.

"But that is not because we are trapping more people, but because we have increased the efficiency of our collections procedure. On the question of revenue generation, may I state that if people obeyed the law, we would get no revenue from trapping," added Sutcliffe.

"When I was appointed, we had more than R240 million in uncollected fines, and collected only about R50 million a year. We have improved that to the point at which our revenue is now far higher than R100 million a year."

Metro Police declined a request by The Independent on Saturday for a yearly statistical breakdown of amounts owed to the city from outstanding speed fines for the past three years.

Sutcliffe urged all drivers to obey the law and help create a city which was accident free.

"If you don't comply, though, we will not hesitate to fine or even jail offenders and I will not be deterred by irresponsible and emotional statements in the press."

Metro police Superintendent Alex Wright said speedsters who were found to be doing exceedingly high speeds would have to appear in court.

"In a case where the speed limit is 60km/h and the driver is driving at about 65-95km/h, then he/she will be given a fine. However, if these speedsters exceed 95km/h and go well above 100km/h they will have to appear in court. The same applies in a 80km/h or 120km/h zone.

"Driving at 190km/h in a 60km/h zone is unacceptable as the motorist shows a blatant disregard for the speed limits and it is obviously intentional."

Wright said these offenders, after appearing in court, should expect to face serious charges.

"A person appearing in court could pay anything from about R5 000 to more than R20 000. The driver may have to do time in jail should he/she not be able to raise this money. In some cases, the magistrate may decide to suspend the motorist's licence."

• This article was originally published on page 1 of The Independent on Saturday on December 31, 2005