This week, residents in various streets complained that their street lights had not worked for years. Residents in Wolmarans-, Baard-, Amanzimtoti-, Kowie- and Reinecke streets, among others, were furious about the situation this week.
The problem becomes even more of an issue in areas where cable thieves lurk. If everything is dark, residents cannot see what is happening at municipal infrastructure like substations and cannot notify authorities if someone is trying to steal the cables. Many people complain that the high rise in serious crime in Carletonville can, to a large extent, be blamed on there being very few working street lights.
“Not one street in Carletonville has all the street lights working. All of them are dead in some streets and only one is working in others. This has been reported in council meetings and on the municipal management WhatsApp group numerous times. Everyone in the municipality is on the group, including the municipal manager,” says the ward councillor for the Extension 8 and 9 area, Mr Carlos Rebelo.
Residents of several streets in the area were without electricity from about 03:00 on Tuesday.
That day, the municipal spokesperson confirmed that the problem stemmed from cable theft. The municipality did not provide any new answers on when the street lights would be fixed, however.
“The street lights will be fixed as soon as the material is available,” the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Rebelo called on residents to keep putting pressure on the municipal call centre, so the street lights become “priority number one” for the municipality. He says when the money does become available, this problem would then be addressed first.
