R1-million allocated for replacing traffic lights in Ekurhuleni

The City of Ekurhuleni is concerned about the high expenses of replacing traffic lights, which are often damaged through avoidable human acts including car accidents, theft, and vandalism.

“The city has already spent about R120m fixing and replacing traffic lights in the previous financial year ended June 2022,” said spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.

“The city has decided that in some incidents, damaged traffic lights will be replaced with stop signs due to the limited funds.

“Although the installation of the stop signs is a temporary measure, some intersections may have the stop signs permanently,” said Dlamini.

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“The permanent installation of stop signs will follow a process to warrant the traffic signal as per the South African Road Traffic Signs Manual, which guides all decisions on traffic signals in the city.”

Dlamini added that the city will continue to adhere to the 24-hour turnaround time for attending to faulty or damaged road signals to ensure smooth and safe movement of motorists.

He said routine scouting will be done to identify faulty or missing traffic lights.

According to Dlamini, in total there are 1 350 traffic lights in Ekurhuleni, about 1 127 are maintained by the City of Ekurhuleni and the remainder are maintained by Gauteng Provincial Government.

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He said in the event a traffic light belonging to the province is faulty, the matter is escalated for their intervention.

Dlamini encouraged the residents to inform the city about faulty traffic lights through their call centre on 086 054 3000.