Albertonians have been complaining about broken street lights for some time and on February 9, the RECORD published an article about the issue.
In the article, it was mentioned that lights were not working in Kritzinger Road, Wildebeest Street, Second Avenue, Bloutulp Street, parts of Hennie Alberts Street, Nerina Street, Fliek Road, Grewar Road and Candican Street.
Residents also said that they struggle to get through to the call centre.
EMM spokesperson Themba Gadebe replied with the following comment:
“The department acknowledges that we do have streetlight sections that are not functional during the night. Streetlight outages can be contributed to various reasons. It can be as simple as a globe that needs to be changed but can also be due to equipment failure, cable faults and load-shedding.
The main contributing factors for non-functional street lights are:
• Theft and vandalism on the streetlight network.
• Multiple cable damages after recent excavation by third party service providers.
Lights that are on 24/7 can be on due to faulty day/night sensor that prevents the section to automatically switch off during the day. It can also be that the sensor was bypassed and left on.
“We do leave streetlights sections sometimes temporarily on during the day for testing purposes, in case of a temp connection to a customer with a faulty service connection cable or in hotspot areas to deter theft and vandalism,” he said.
Leaving a section on while a service provider is busy with excavation in the same area may also assist us to identify damages as and when it occurs.
Contractors damaging services are held responsible for the cost of damages, if found to damage cables.
The request for reference enables a customer to make follow-ups on logged complaints.
The logged calls also provides us with history of faults or incidents and assist us in planning for future refurbishment or network enhancement projects.”
In addition to calling the call centre or log call on the “My Ekurhuleni” app, Alberton and Thokoza customers can report streetlight complaints to 011 999 2525 during office hours, or visit the Energy Department’s offices in the Swartkoppies Complex, where our frontline staff will assist to log the complaint. ”
ALSO READ:
Non-working street lights in Alberton a big problem
