City of Ekurhuleni to fix street lights

The City of Ekurhuleni has started to reduce the backlog on street light complaints since lockdown restrictions were adjusted to level one early this year.

The street light complaints backlog developed due to the strict control of the number of staff allowed at the workplace imposed during the various stages of lockdown.

The City had resumed fixing of street lights when the restrictions were relaxed to lower levels, but the situation was compounded when the country was placed on level three in December, which impacted the fixing of street lights.

The City constantly assesses the safety and well-being of employees during the pandemic against the provision of service delivery to customers in line with its duty of care.

Due to the reduced staff numbers under lockdown levels five and to comply with the regulations promulgated under the Disaster Management Act, 2002, only skeleton staff were available, focusing on attending to electricity outages to customers, and street lights were not prioritised.

The City appointed contractors this month (April) to complement the City officials with street light maintenance and repairs.

Due to budget constraints and a huge backlog in complaints, it is anticipated that the backlog may persist into the new 2021/2 financial year commencing on July 1.

This is provided the country remains on the current lockdown level or moves to a lower relaxation of lockdown restrictions.