Am I the only one who’s noticed just how good the Cape Town City Traffic department is looking these days? Whether or not it’s a view to impressing visitors to the city, particularly in June this year, or not, let’s hope they keep it up.
I attended one of the press conferences linked to the forthcoming football world cup, hosted at the Cape Town Convention Centre, a month or so back, and I couldn’t believe how many brand new vehicles the traffic department is in possession of at the moment. Of course, anyone wanting to break the law on the roads around Cape Town could have done so merrily on that particular morning as just the line of neatly parked cars and shiny new motorcycles outside the convention centre must surely have accounted for most of the cities traffic vehicle allocation, but there could be no denying that it was an impressive sight. Of course, the sight of some of the officers standing beside their vehicles still made me back myself in a foot race against the law.
The city has clearly done a nice deal with Volkswagen, as there is no shortage of both latest and previous generation Golf GTIs running around Cape Town in blue and white trim these days. I’m sure the officers who still have to pedal around in the old Nissan Almeras and Opel Corsas are feeling a tad hard done by every morning when the keys are handed out.
Look, don’t get me wrong, our men and women in blue still have some way to go in the cool stakes to have a patch on the Italians. Apart from the recently deceased Lamborghini Gallardo that they used to chase down fashion crimes, one can only assume that the pouts and glares that the “big dog” Carabinieri sport have been perfected at some sort of modelling finishing school.
Cape Town Traffic did, however, take a giant step forward in the cool stakes a few months ago. The launch of the Ghost Squad, an elite unit who creep up on you in unmarked vehicles, must surely rank as one of the most proactive moves to come out of any South African traffic department in years. The brief to this unit, apart from the obvious, is to monitor traffic and catch people breaking the law when they assume the coast is clear. Violations such as crossing solid white lines, chatting on mobile phones and people catching a lift by standing on the rear bumper of a moving taxi (true story) are high on the agenda for the Ghost Squad.
Attempts by members of the unit riding unmarked motorcycles to remain incognito are undone slightly by the fact that they struggle to hide their uniforms completely, but the officers driving around in the unmarked cars (three Golf GTIs and a couple of Opel Astras that I’ve seen) are a little more difficult to spot. This I found out while out reviewing the latest Renault Clio Sport a few weeks ago. This hot little car tends to draw a fair amount of attention, and a lot of traffic light challengers, keen see what this relatively unknown quantity can do. Approaching an intersection I suddenly noticed a bright red Golf GTI rapidly merging into the traffic from a freeway off ramp. Thinking that this was just another friendly challenge I made preparations to drop a gear or two – until I caught sight of this particular GTI’s number plate. You see, due to regulations, I suppose, the Ghost Squad are forced to have number plate numbers that begin with the letter CCT (Cape City Traffic). On closer inspection, and after putting on my most innocent choir boy face for the officer behind the wheel, I noted that blue and red lights are actually visible through the rear window and front grille of the cars. Note to self…
I have it on authority that the GTI’s in particular are standard spec, and have not been chipped, and that the members of the unit have all received advanced driver training. I probably won’t be as impressed should they ever pull me over (not that I ever break the law, mom) but I have to admit that, after spending as much time as I do on the roads in and around Cape Town, I can only praise any initiative by the traffic department to punish bad driving. In the same breath I’ll probably be called a hypocrite for not having the same admiration for the gentleman sitting behind the radar gun, hidden in the bushes, but at least the Ghost Squad are being proactive about catching and punishing drivers who genuinely pose a danger to others.
