Drones and other modern technology infrastructure have been added to the crime fighting repertoire in the Nelson Mandela Bay area, as the Eastern Cape metropolis continues to seek innovative ways to reduce crime.
Recently, the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) – the municipal body charged with driving urban renewal, economic transformation, and regeneration across Gqeberha, Kariega, and surrounding areas – officially launched Phase 3 of its Security Infrastructure Project, which expanded the deployment of drones into crime hotspots around the Bay area.
“This expansion extends our CCTV and fibre network across Stanford and Gail Road, Stadium Precinct, North End, Algoa Park, Missionvale, KwaDwesi, Joe Slovo, Khayamnandi, Walmer Township, Kings Beach, Happy Valley and the City Hall Precinct,” the agency said in a statement to mark the project’s launch.
“As part of Phase 3 of the MBDA Security Programme, three aerial drones are now deployed to provide rapid, real-time surveillance over different areas of the city.
“Drones provide live footage of large and hard-to-reach areas. When incidents are detected, instant communication is sent to law enforcement to enable immediate response.
“The benefits include faster detection and deployment by SAPS and Metro Police, increased safety for residents, businesses and visitors, and stronger monitoring of public spaces, events and critical infrastructure
“This technology allows us to see more, respond quicker, and keep Nelson Mandela Bay safer.”
Alongside the drones, the agency also launched 360 high-performance CCTV cameras, and 40km of fibre optic infrastructure with dedicated power to ensure seamless, 24-hour connectivity to the Tramways Control Room
For clarity, the MBDA came into existence in 2003, and Phase 1 of its project focussed mainly on control and installations, where the technology infrastructure was installed on core target areas including the Tramways building, designated parking bays, and Lower Valley Road, completing initial CCTV installations and linking them directly into the MBDA Tramways Control Room.
Phase 2 was more of an expansion period, which saw the first drones being added into the municipal security matrix. It advanced the hybrid security rollout by scaling monitoring capabilities and executing a high-tech drone security pilot project in July and August 2025 (conducting 306 flights that resulted in 42 criminal activity detections and sixteen direct arrests in collaboration with local law enforcement).
Phase was launched at a time when statistics provided by the South African Police Service (SAPS) show that the eighteen local police precincts recoded 1,293 murder cases across of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality between April 2025 and March 2026, making it the most violent metro per capita in the country, with around 120 murders per 100,000 residents.
To be fair though, as high as it looks, the number actually reflected a thirteen percent annual decrease overall.
Still, deputy mayor Gary van Niekerk was still not impressed.
“We have become the murder capital of SA,” he said.
“We are a metro of 1,3 million people, but there are only about 128 Metro Police officers. The ratio should be somewhere between one Metro Police officer to 125 people, but at the moment, it’s in the thousands.
“Technology is the only way to go to protect our infrastructure and make the city safe for our residents, as well as our visitors.
“And today, it is just one of those buttons being pressed to ensure that normal, common people like me are safe in a clean environment, and that infrastructure is maintained.”
The drones – which look like DJI’s Dock 3s – were provided by security systems integration company Afrisec, and the group’s chief operating officer, Johan Barnard said the company’s fleet of seven drones would provide surveillance coverage across the metro.
“They are spaced about 5km apart, and the drones are used for active and reactive surveillance,” Barnard said.
“Everywhere that we have deployed our drones, we have received an immediate reaction. We catch people immediately.
“Literally from day one, you catch illegal people, whether it’s cable theft, poaching, car theft, illegal dumping. Wherever something is occurring illegally, the drones sniff them out very easily.”
For obvious security reasons, Barnard would not reveal the location of the drone docks, but he did add that they could be deployed at any time of the day, even at night.
“What is very important for these drones, and what makes it important for our reaction team, the police, and the guards on site, is that all the information that the drone sees gets relayed immediately to these people so they don’t go blindly into a specific scenario where they can get ambushed or hurt.
“This is a tool assisting the people on the ground.”
At the launch, Barnard demonstrated how the system operates, launching a drone from an undisclosed location and flying it over the township of Walmer, streaming live footage that was clear enough to zoom in on vehicle number plates.