Vandalism blamed for non-functioning traffic lights in Midrand and the city
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said "The traffic lights are not functioning due to the unavailability of material to fix them."
Motorists and commuters using Midrand’s Pretoria Main and Old Pretoria Main roads will seemingly have to endure the traffic nightmare caused by vandalised lights for a while longer.
This comes after City Power and the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport both responded to the previous query.
In an article by Midrand Reporter, Daily commute is worsened by broken traffic lights, [Week ending 14 April] about several non-functioning traffic lights at various intersections on the above-mentioned routes: City Power, who were initially contacted for a comment for the above-mentioned article, has now weighed in on the matter.
Previously, they referred the publication to the Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA).
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said that the lights were not working due to rampant vandalism and theft of the traffic lights infrastructure.
“This is very worrying as we lose millions of rands repairing these lights only for them to be vandalized again. The traffic lights are not functioning due to the unavailability of materials to fix them. For City Power to fix the lights, we need 400m of 25 X 4-core cable,” said Mangena.
Earlier this month, the power utility said they were running out of stock materials such as medium voltage and low voltage cables, among others.
Mangena added that when the City Power team went to inspect traffic lights at Pretoria Main and Old Pretoria main roads, they found the box locked with a private lock.
“We need to seek access to the supplier’s box in order to determine if the problem is on City Power’s side or JRA’s.
JRA spokesperson Zoleka Jika said the roads belonged to the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport.
“The traffic signals at various intersections of Pretoria Main and Old Pretoria Main are heavily damaged due to theft of our equipment,” said Lesiba Mypa, the spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport.
Related article:
