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The City of Johannesburg’s Environmental and Infrastructure Services MMC, Nico de Jager, is directing City Power to prioritise the maintenance of its 270 000 streetlights.
De Jager said streets were being left in the dark too often and the turnaround time for repairs was too slow.
New streetlight maintenance teams, funded by the R15-million capital expenditure budget (included in the 2017/18 maintenance budget), are being deployed to repair and install streetlights across the city.
“Through the allocation of R195 million made available in the maintenance budget for the 2017/18 financial year, we will ensure that streetlights, especially around main transport routes, will be fixed faster, and that the correct procedures are followed to ensure that repairs last longer,” he said.
De Jager added that he was aware that a significant portion of damaged streetlights, especially in low-income high-density areas, was the result of illegal power connections and vandalism. Last year, City Power said the widespread vandalism of electricity infrastructure impacted negatively on the provision of service delivery. These actions also cost the entity more than R1 billion in the previous fiscal year, the utility said.
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Residents are urged to assist this campaign by reporting broken streetlights to City Power on 011 375 5555, www.citypower.mobi or by tweeting to @citypowerjhb. If residents spot any illegal tampering with streetlights, report it to Metro police on 011 375 5911.
Earlier this year, Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba, along with the Johannesburg Roads Agency, launched another infrastructure project. This was the traffic signal improvement plan, including the no-joins policy, that will be implemented over the next three years and will cost the City more than R200 million.
The no-joins policy means that faulty cables at traffic intersections will be replaced as opposed to being joined.
Potholes also received some attention recently when the Transport MMC, Nonhlanhla Makhuba, announced that during the past year the City repaired 117 483 potholes. This was an increase of 22 per cent compared to the previous period in the 2015/2016 fiscal year. She also announced that traffic light downtime in Joburg had recently been reduced by 55 per cent.
Related articles:
Three years, R200 mil to improve traffic signals
Illegal connections and cable theft cost City Power over R1 billion