28 SepHarare’s AI Traffic Cameras: How the Fines Work and Why Broken Robots Undermine Them

Harare’s new AI traffic cameras have logged more than four million suspected offences since they went live, and the government has started chasing motorists for payment. According to ZRP spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi, the count jumped from 2.3 million in mid-August to over four million by the end of September 2026, a rise of about 74 per cent in six weeks.

If you drive in Harare, a fine could now arrive on your phone days after you passed a junction. Here is how the system works, what it costs, and why it has arrived before working traffic lights.

How the smart camera system works

The cameras are Phase One of the Smart Traffic Management and Surveillance Programme, run by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage with TelOne as the technical partner and funding from the Mutapa Investment Fund. Phase One covers 20 sites at major Harare intersections, with over 300 cameras planned. TelOne said in July that 16 sites were already live.

Named junctions include Jason Moyo Avenue and Simon Muzenda Street, Samora Machel Avenue and Glenara Avenue, Leopold Takawira Street and Herbert Chitepo Avenue, Robert Mugabe Road and Nasser Road, and Cripps Road and Remembrance Drive.

The process runs in five steps:

1. Detection. The cameras flag running red lights, speeding, illegal turns, driving against traffic, phone use, missing seatbelts, stopping over the line, and kombis loading passengers in the road.
2. Verification. Officers in a control room review each case before it becomes an offence.
3. Owner lookup. The number plate is matched to the owner through the Central Vehicle Registry (CVR) and ZINARA.
4. Notice. The registered owner gets the fine by SMS or email, with photo or video evidence available to view online.
5. Payment or challenge. Fines are paid into a dedicated CBZ account, through mobile banking, or at ZRP traffic offices. An online payment platform is still being built. You can also choose to contest the offence in court.

How much the fines cost

No separate camera fine schedule has been published. Officials have pointed to existing law, which means the standard scale of traffic fines applies. Most everyday offences sit at Level 3, which is US$30. Speeding runs on a sliding scale: US$5 for 6 to 15 km/h over, US$15 for 16 to 25 km/h over, and US$30 for 26 to 50 km/h over. Anything more serious goes to a magistrate. Fines are set in US dollars but can be paid in ZiG at the official rate on the day you pay.

The real risk is volume. A kombi crossing the same junction twice a day could collect several US$30 notices a week. Separate offences also add up, so running a red light while on your phone is two fines, not one. See our explainer on how Zimbabwe’s fine levels work for the full scale.

Protect yourself: check your registration details

Because notices go to the registered owner, the biggest trap is paperwork. If you sold a car and the buyer never completed the change of ownership, their fines will come to you. If you bought one without transferring it, your notices are going to someone else and may pile up unseen.

• Complete any outstanding transfer at CVR. Our CVR fee schedule lists the current costs, which dropped earlier this year.
• Make sure the phone number and email on your CVR and ZINARA licence records are current, so notices actually reach you.
• Only pay through official channels. Expect scammers to send fake “camera fine” messages with private EcoCash numbers.
• Ask to see the evidence before paying. If the photo shows a broken signal or the wrong car, you have the right to contest it in court.

The problem: cameras before working robots

Road safety matters, and many drivers do break the rules. But cameras only work when the roads they watch work too.

By the City of Harare’s own count, 21 of the 69 signal-controlled junctions in the CBD were not working, blamed on faulty controllers, vandalism, ZETDC power cuts, accident damage, and lights removed during road dualisation that were never replaced. Outside the CBD it is often worse. At the busy junction of Remembrance Drive and Simon Mazorodze Road, near ZBC, there are no traffic lights at all, leaving drivers to fend for themselves on a main route south.

That creates three clear problems:

• Unfair tickets. A red-light offence means little when a light is stuck, flashing, or dark.
• Enforcement without direction. Where police are posted at broken junctions, motorists often report officers waiting to catch offences rather than directing the traffic that the missing lights have left in chaos.
• Roads that force bad driving. Government told Parliament that Harare has 3,772 km of roads needing repair and only 316 km had been rehabilitated. Swerving around potholes, crossing lines, and driving on the wrong side to avoid craters are daily survival, not recklessness.

This fits a wider pattern. The state moves quickly when enforcement falls on ordinary citizens: vendors were given until 9 September to leave the CBD under Operation Chenesa Harare before the government backed down to trading hours, homes have been demolished, and new fines and bans keep arriving, from mushikashika penalties to parking fines. The duties that fall on the state itself, like working signals, marked lanes and passable roads, move far more slowly. Motorists already pay for those duties through fuel levies, tolls and licence fees.

What would make the system fair

1. Fix the lights first. No red-light fines at any junction whose signal is not fully working, with the camera footage used to prove the signal’s state.
2. Put fine money back into the roads. Ring-fence a share of camera revenue for signal repairs, backup power such as solar for traffic lights, and road markings.
3. Publish the rules and the data. Release the camera fine schedule, locations, a simple dispute process for obvious errors, and monthly figures on fines collected and where the money went.
4. Police should direct, not wait. Officers at broken junctions should be controlling traffic, which prevents far more crashes than tickets do.

The bottom line

The cameras are real, and the fines are coming. Update your vehicle records, know the current fine amounts, and ask for evidence before you pay. Smart cameras could make Harare’s roads safer, but only if the lights, lanes and road surfaces they watch are fixed first. Otherwise, the system will look like revenue collection, not road safety.