Budget allocated for street lights to be replaced with solar lights
During the recently held IDP consultation meeting, held at the Jack Botes hall, Polokwane Mayor John Mpe expressed concern at the rate at which municipal and residential infrastructure is stolen by criminals.
POLOKWANE – A budget of over R4m in the current book year, has been allocated for the replacement of street lights and solar street lights, according to the city cluster projects progress report for 2022/23 as shared with residents last Thursday during an Integrated Development Planning (IDP) stakeholder meeting.
The solar lights, or photo-voltaic systems, will hopefully save on electricity and reduce cable theft in the city. The service provider who was appointed on February 27, will in the allocated budget work in wards 19, 20, 22, 23 and 39 under a broader streetlight project dubbed “Energy Efficient Demand and Side Management”, initiated by the local municipality to replace street lights.
During the recently held IDP consultation meeting, held at the Jack Botes hall, Polokwane Mayor John Mpe expressed concern at the rate at which municipal and residential infrastructure is stolen by criminals.
Read more: Thieves pounce on street lights during load-shedding: Muni
“This is not only a threat to the safety of ordinary citizens, but stolen infrastructure requires replacement, pushing back the 2030 vision of becoming a smart city and that of reaching metro status,” he remarked. We will ensure that the solar panels are protected in such a way as to guard it against theft. The city is an economic centre for the province and we appreciate all of the safety and security officials who assisted in the arrests of perpetrators over the long weekend.”
Multiple arrests were made in Westenburg Seshego, Mankweng and Ladanna of suspects who were found tampering with electrical cables over Easter weekend.
Last May, Polokwane Observer reported on residents’ plea for the maintenance of street lamps after an increase in theft. At the time, municipal spokesperson, Thipa Selala mentioned how the burden of repairing and maintaining street lights had increased.
“We are preparing the street lights. The backlog is currently just more than what we can handle. We are increasing our streetlight maintenance teams, but this is a costly and time-consuming exercise. We are procuring more ‘cherry-pickers’, the bucket trucks with which streetlights are repaired. While we are busy with that, our efforts are supplemented by the use of contractors. To complement the current intervention, the municipality will embark on a major street light repairs programme from the beginning of the new financial year,” he confirmed at the time.
