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City Power to embark on streetlight maintenance campaign
Residents are urged to assist this campaign by reporting broken streetlights to the power entity.
A City Power employee prepares to cut one of several illegal connections from a Marina Street streetlight during yesterday’s operation, 10 July 2014. Picture – Ernest Wolmarans
City of Johannesburg’s Environmental and Infrastructure Services MMC Nico de Jager is directing City Power to prioritise the maintenance of its 270 000 streetlights, reports the Northcliff Melville Times.
De Jager said streets were being left in the dark too often and the turnaround time for repairs was too slow.
Nico de Jager, MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, says the City will ensure that streetlights, especially around main transport routes, will be fixed faster. Picture: Northcliff Melville Times
New streetlight maintenance teams, funded by the R15-million capital expenditure budget (included in the 2017/18 maintenance budget), are being deployed to repair and install streetlights across the city.
“Through the allocation of R195 million made available in the maintenance budget for the 2017/18 financial year, we will ensure that streetlights, especially around main transport routes, will be fixed faster, and that the correct procedures are followed to ensure that repairs last longer,” he said.
De Jager added he was aware that a significant portion of damaged streetlights, especially in low-income high-density areas, was the result of illegal power connections and vandalism. Last year, City Power said the widespread vandalism of electricity infrastructure impacted negatively on the provision of service delivery. These actions also cost the entity more than R1 billion in the previous fiscal year, the utility said.
Residents are urged to assist this campaign by reporting broken streetlights to City Power on 011 375 5555, www.citypower.mobi or by tweeting to @citypowerjhb. If residents spot any illegal tampering with streetlights, report it to the metro police on 011 375 5911.
Earlier this year, executive mayor Herman Mashaba, along with the Johannesburg Roads Agency, launched another infrastructure project. This was the traffic signal improvement plan, including the no-joins policy, that will be implemented over the next three years and will cost the City more than R200 million.
The no-joins policy means that faulty cables at traffic intersections will be replaced as opposed to being joined.
– Caxton News Service
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