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Property protection

Ithemba Property Trust 2 is a property development company based in Berea, Johannesburg, with several residential properties in the Johannesburg CBD.

The history

Crime, overcrowding and hijacking are only some of the problems that building owners in this area have to deal with on a daily basis. Hillbrow, with its Manhattan-style residential area, and other parts of Johannesburg CBD, consist largely of densely populated high-rise residential buildings, shops and places of entertainment.

In general, access control was done either by using cards or a register for tenants to sign in and out. However, these systems were fraudulently bypassed by tenants and visitors and did not provide total control.

Effective and watertight access control was needed to ensure the safety and security of tenants and to ensure total revenue capture for the building owners. Subletting was responsible for a great loss of revenue, as was overcrowding and extremely high utility bills.

"After doing research on possible solutions and service providers in the market, it became clear that biometric access control would be the right solution for our problem," says Ithemba's Ruben Papenfus, manager of the building. "Dex offered a customised solution for residential buildings that would be the best in the situation we faced."

The solution

After a meeting with Derick Terblanche from Dex, Ithemba decided to use the solution because it offered a complete package consisting of biometric scanners, turnstiles and software.

The first step was to install a full-height turnstile to control incoming and outgoing traffic. The next phase was the installation of the biometric units for incoming tenants and visitors. These units consist of the biometric fingerprint scanner as well as a cellular modem to transfer data to and from the central control point.

Then all the users' fingerprints had to be registered at the control office, and this data was then sent via the GSM network to the unit on site. The unit was then activated and ready for use. Finally, tenants had to be educated and trained in the use of the unit. The very robust construction of the units, together with the excellent service from Dex, ensured that this process flowed smoothly.

The benefits

The planned outcome of this solution was total access control linked to a management system by means of the data captured with each entry and exit. This result was achieved with complete success, because access control improved by 100% and overcrowding decreased by 90%.

The aim of this project was to control the access to the buildings, give tenants a safer environment, protect the property from overcrowding and secure revenue. Ithemba now offers safe and secure homes for hundreds of people and at the same time has succeeded in securing revenue by eliminating unnecessary expenses.

Fact file

DexSecurity Solutions, Victor van Heerden, +27 (0) 11 644 6500

Ithemba Property Trust, Ruben Papenfus, +27 (0) 11 484 7559, ithemba@tiscali.co.za

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