The OUTsurance Pointsmen have played a vital role in keeping the city moving during loadshedding, when intersections go out and even at accident scenes!
Johannesburg, South Africa (15 January 2021) – It has been a saga that has continued for four years now, but it seems that the OUTsurance Pointsmen are back and won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon!
The OUTsurance Pointsmen have played a vital role in keeping the city moving during loadshedding, when intersections go out and even at accident scenes!
“The City of Johannesburg is pleased to announce the finalization of a new agreement between the City of Johannesburg and Traffic Freeflow, a company responsible for the deployment of Pointsmen in the City.”
But the old administration seemed to be at the helm of the Pointsmen problem.
On the 29 August 2018 Herman Mashaba, Executive Mayor of Johannesburg, saved over 170 jobs after reinstating the Johannesburg OUTsurance Pointsmen during a lapse in the contract but a year after that on the 1st of September 2019, the tender process came into question again and was not resolved… until now! Since then, the Pointsmen – popularly known as the Outsurance Pointsmen – have been an inconvenient absence on our roads since.
“Regardless of the service being provided at no cost to the City by the entity responsible, this critical service was abruptly cancelled by the previous administration.”
Traffic Freeflow was the company that initiated the Pointsmen project in South Africa and have been running the concept for almost 18 years around so it makes perfect sense to keep them in the driver’s seat of the programme.
“Over the last 15-months, our roads have been left unattended and with great inconvenience to residents during times of peak hour traffic and signal failures. This undoubtedly compromised the safety of residents on our roads.”
Upon his election in December 2019, the Executive Mayor, Cllr. Geoffery Makhubo directed that the City move swiftly to finalize new agreements with the service providers, on terms that would guarantee the services at zero cost to the City and the creation of job opportunities for the hundreds of young people who are trained to provide these services.
“We are pleased that the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) trained 40 of the pointsmen last month who from 11 January 2021 took up duty alongside an additional 60 pointsmen who were part of the programme previously,” said Mayor Makhubo.
“We urge residents to show the pointsmen courtesy and to cooperate with their instructions on our roads. They are there to assist with the smooth flow of traffic and to ensure we are safe on the roads at all times. We are beginning to see fruits in our efforts to normalize the City after the disruption of the last four years.”
The pointsmen have been deployed to various regions throughout the City from yesterday and over the next while there will be an increased deployment of the static and mobile pointsmen.
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