By Richard Diamond/Staff Reports

In Zambia, Frank Tayali, the minister for Transport and Logistics, on Wednesday charged officials with speed camera corruption. Tayali said the government entered into a contract with a private vendor, Intelligent Mobility Solutions (IMS), that increased the personal wealth of politicians. Zambia removed its speed cameras in 2020 after an auditor general report uncovered diversion of fine money into personal accounts. Prosecutors charged IMS chairman Walid El Nahas with distributing a US $11,000 bribe to former President Edgar Lungu's press aide, Amos Chanda, and $10,000 to former Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) chief Zindaba Soko. The corruption charges were later dropped against all three. Nehas has also been accused of pocketing $6.5 million in an electronic toll collection contract in South Africa. South African sources allege the Zambian speed camera bribes may have totaled US $2.6 million, an amount that included the providing the ruling party in Zambia with a personal ten percent cut of photo ticketing profit.

In Limassol, Cyprus, motorists have been hurling oranges and stones at photo radar vehicles, and police officials complained on Tuesday that photo radar van drivers have allegedly been receiving nasty comments online. The country only recently revived its speed camera program with Limassol's cameras generating 40,000 tickets so far this year. In Lucca, Italy, vigilantes sprayed red paint over the lenses of the "Velo OK" brand speed camera in Ponte all'Ania.

In Dourlers, France, opponents of automated ticketing on Sunday flipped over the speed camera that had been issuing automated citations on the RN2. The device had just been installed on Tuesday. Before that, vigilantes used blue-green paint to blind the speed camera on the RD977 in Chalons-en-Champagne. Those responsible also painted a Lorraine cross on the side -- a symbol of the French resistance -- and a message opposing President Emmanuel Macron's plan to increase the retirement age to 65. On Friday, the speed camera on the RD83 in Menoncourt was disabled with a coat of fluorescent yellow spraypaint. The speed camera installed Thursday on the RD983 in Mantes-la-Ville was cut down with an angle grinder mere hours after its installation. Also on Thursday, the pole-mounted "turret" speed camera on the RD86 between Viviers and Saint-Montan was scorched after an attempt to set it on fire with a burning tire. Firefighters extinguished the blaze before more damage could be done. A similar attack a day earlier on the RD131 in Louvetot failed to take out the automated ticketing machine. In Guadeloupe, an archipelago in the Caribbean, vigilantes on Saturday torched the speed camera in Pierrefonds, with firefighters intervening to save the camera.