The Mall@Carnival, in partnership with the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport, local law enforcement, private security companies and Freedom Front Plus PR Clr Riaan van Zyl, is adopting the traffic lights at the intersection of Airport and Heidelberg roads.
These lights near the mall have been out of order for over three months.
With this project, the first of its kind in Ekurhuleni, the mall will take ownership of the lights, move the control box onto the mall’s premises to better safeguard it, and provide power to the lights even during load-shedding.
Initially, the mall proposed to cover the repair costs, but the roads department suggested the Adopt and Protect project instead.
They will also erect cameras that monitor the lights, with a security detail monitoring the footage 24/7 to ensure vandalism doesn’t reoccur.
A technician will go to the site to investigate the current issue, and the roads department will then repair the lights within the next few weeks.
The SAPS, the EMPD, the CPF, AfriForum and local security companies will all provide support in protecting these lights because it is a main entry point into town and highly prone to accidents.
After the mall, the next traffic lights identified for the project are those at Carnival City, the entrance to Dalpark Ext 1 and others northward on the R23.
The goal is to get businesses and neighbourhoods near these lights to follow in the mall’s footsteps. The roads department is excited about such a movement because it has no budget for the next six months, and community involvement will lead to less vandalism and, as such, less expenditure.
“When the robot went out the first time, we called and called and called the roads department and other places to come fix it or at least assign pointsmen, but no one wanted to help,” said Erna Vermaak, the mall’s centre manager.
Van Zyl then went to the Brakpan Customer Care Centre with the issue, got the EMPD to assign pointsmen during peak traffic for the festive season, and then, in the first week of January, he received a call from Mbali Seheri, the director of stakeholder management of the roads department.
Seheri pitched the idea for the mall to adopt and protect the robot. At that point, Van Zyl and mall management didn’t know where else to go, so they were excited to start the process.
According to Vermaak, the mall approached Van Zyl for help because he’s always involved and of help to the mall.
After many meetings, the adoption received the go-ahead, so the lease agreements will be signed. The goal after the R23 is to spread the project across all of Ekurhuleni.
“It’s a nationwide problem, not just a Brakpan one, but here we do things differently and get things done,” Van Zyl explained.
