Residents who have outstanding issues with street light have been urged to report them and send the reference number to their councillor if the problem is not resolved.
This according to councillor Nico de Jager, MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, who requested that all street light matters are reported in an endeavour to address any outstanding issues.
De Jager said residents must continue to report streetlight-related queries to the call centre and obtain a reference number. “I have a staff member in my office, dealing with queries from councillors only, to try and see where the holdup is and improve the response time.”
He said his office is only capacitated to deal with queries from councillors. “Residents must continue to report streetlight queries through the call centre and escalate those queries to the councillors if not resolved within 10 days.”
He said his office will not assist anyone without the necessary call centre reference number.
Sandton, as well as all other areas, are affected in the same way based on the age of the infrastructure and, in many instances, the manner in which issues were attended to in the past contributes to the slow pace of repairs and maintenance, he said.
“An example … if the lifespan of a globe is two years and a light fuses because it has reached its lifespan on say, Green Street, the entire Green Street’s [globes] should be replaced, not only one bulb.” He said this will avoid duplications and there won’t be a need to keep going back for one light only.
De Jager said the 2018/2019 budget for new street lights has been increased to R45 million. “This is part of the programme of Dipethogo to improve safety and security, especially in poorer areas where we previously had no public lighting.
“My office will assist as far as possible and apply pressure on City Power to attend to all queries,” said De Jager.
Ward 103 councillor Vincent Earp said, “We must understand that City Power has a small budget for street light installations and there are more requests than budget available.
“Crime has made the installation of street lights a necessity, and in all areas where Eskom supplies electricity, there needs to be a collaboration between City Power and Eskom.
“Residents with street light problems need to log the issue and get a reference number. When escalating to their councillor, besides providing the reference number, they should also state exactly where the street lights are out.”
Earp said to provide the street name, closest intersecting street, the street light pole numbers or the house numbers. “They should also state the date that they logged the problem,” ended Earp.
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