Cape Town - Residents have welcomed the City’s streetlight repair programme, saying it would assist in fighting crime across the metro.
This comes as the City’s energy teams attended to vandalised streetlight infrastructure in Gugulethu and Nyanga at the weekend.
Mayco member for energy Xanthea Limberg said more than 12 650 streetlight-related requests were received between July and August.
“Our teams are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our communities. The city’s streetlight repair programme is making significant progress.
“The Gugulethu and Nyanga areas are particularly hard-hit by criminals who vandalise streetlight infrastructure on a regular basis.
“To combat this, we are implementing a number of measures to protect our community infrastructure,” Limberg said.
“By investing in our streetlight infrastructure and by taking a comprehensive approach to fight vandalism, the city is demonstrating its commitment to providing a safe and secure environment for all.”
Limberg said City teams were responsible for more than 245 000 streetlights.
“Between April and June this year some R7.3 million was spent by the City to fix theft and vandalised infrastructure. We’ve put more boots on the ground with contracting services and also through our Energy Safety Teams, beefing-up resources with about R40 million to tackle this crisis.
“We ask residents to stand with us to protect their power, keep the lights on and report suspicious activity anonymously,” Limberg said.
Nyanga community policing forum secretary Dumisani Qwebe said the repair of streetlights would play a critical role in fighting crime.
“Most crime activities are being done in the dark areas or spaces by these criminals and by these streetlights, it means street robberies are going to decrease as it will be easy to identify them.
“It will also play a huge role in preventing hijackings because drivers can now spot those who will be trying to rob them and even those who will be travelling to work during the early hours of the morning will be safe,” Qwebe said.
Ward councillor in Gugulethu, Bongani Ngcombolo, welcomed the repairs, however, said the City was not doing enough to attend to issues of crime.
“It is very important to have streetlights working more, especially for us working and staying in the informal settlements, because when they are not working we become victims of crimes.
“But the City doesn’t respond properly to such cases because there are many lights that are yet to be fixed,” Ngcombolo said.
Report suspicious behaviour to the City’s public emergency communication centre on 021 480 7700.
Cape Argus