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Region F has a new electronic system for tracing by-law infringement cases that promises to boost its success rate.
FOLLOWING the sometimes elusive paper trail is a thing of the past for the legal and special investigations unit in Region F, the inner city.
This specialist task team investigates by-law infringements in one of the most densely populated areas of Johannesburg and has more than 600 active cases on its database.
The inner city team take a 'giant step forward' with the new scanner
With the help of a new scanner donated by Plustek, the unit has gone digital and from now on will do all its paperwork in a specially designed electronic management system. More importantly, the loss of critical legal information will be a thing of the past.
The handover of the equipment, valued at R8 000, was made to the unit on 23 June at the region's headquarters, the CJ Cronje Building in town.
Link to City database
The new software programme will be linked to the City of Johannesburg's legal system. Once documentation is scanned and filed electronically, a person will be allocated to the case and its progress will be tracked and traced.
"It is a giant step forward," says the unit's regional manager, Louis Geldenhuys.
The region's programme and strategy unit was tasked by the regional director, Nkosinathi Mthethwa, to come up with a solution to safeguard legal documentation pertaining to cases being investigated.
"We wanted to develop a safe filing system for our legal cases which are often of a sensitive nature. The whole reason behind the scanner is to stop the leaking of information," explains Vijay Moodley, the manager of town planning and operations.
The final product was the result of a joint initiative between the City's legal records department and the programme and strategy, urban management nerve centre, and legal and special investigations units of Region F, she says.
ImageTEK business development manager, Andrew Allen who delivered the scanner on behalf of parent company Plustek had much praise for the way in which the region approached the task. "Joburg is doing it the right way by first getting the process in place and then getting the hardware."
Bad buildings
The legal and special investigations unit was started about 18 months ago to fast-track urban management problems relating to by-law contraventions in the inner city. Cases being investigated range from minor contraventions such as signage to hijacked buildings.
A key focus for the unit is to resolve the scourge of bad buildings; there are about 400 in the region. The new electronic documentation system will enhance the process immensely, confirms Geldenhuys.
"The intention was to enable us to put documentation on to an electronic system which is available out of our offices."
The unit has a success rate of 95 percent on cases which eventually go to court, he confirms.
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