Traffic lights are commonly known as ‘robots’ in parts of Africa. But in the Democratic Republic of Congo, traffic regulators have gone one step further and are using actual robots to control the flow of vehicles in the cities of Kinshasa and Lubumbashi.
The concept’s creators are from an association called Women’s Technology – they hope to sell the design to other African countries and even to the USA and Europe.
Women’s Technology’s president Therese Ir Izay Kirongozi said that, though robots had been developed for many purposes in other countries, the concept of using them to control traffic was “truly made in Congo”.
The robots, which cost US$15,000 each, are solar powered and made from aluminium to withstand the city’s high temperatures.
They are also equipped with cameras to film motorists who commit traffic offences, though, as yet, the information has not been used in prosecutions.
Kinshasa taxi driver Franck Mavuzi told Agence France-Presse: “The robot is good. When it stops the traffic, you can see that everybody stops and pedestrians can cross without a problem. Thank God for those who invented it! The traffic police bother us too much – let’s leave robots to do the job.”
In February, the city of Goma in DRC was host to a music festival with the theme ‘singing for peace’. The event had been postponed from 2013 due to conflicts in the area between governments and rebel forces.
