07/08/2017: City Power to embark on Street Light Maintenance Campaign
I am happy to announce that the City Power Board has adopted a plan that will see a highly dedicated team take to the streets to embark on a Street Light Maintenance Campaign throughout the city.
With 270 000 streetlights across Johannesburg, our streets are being left in the dark too often, and the turn-around time for repairs are too slow.
As such, in an effort to enhance the security of our residents, and improve the turn-around time of repairs, I have asked City Power to prioritise the maintenance of this critical infrastructure.
The new Street Light Maintenance Teams have been capacitated through the funds made available in the Capital Expenditure Budget of R15 million, which allows for the installation of new lights as well as the repairs of current and new lights.
Through the allocation of R195 million made available in the maintenance budget for the 2017/18 financial year, we will ensure that street lights, especially around main transport routes, will be fixed faster, and that the correct procedures are followed to ensure that repairs last longer.
We also acknowledge that a significant portion of damaged street lights, especially in our low income high density areas throughout the City, are the result of illegal power connections and vandalism.
City Power will be working closely with the Department of Public Safety and the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) to police and prevent such damage in the future. For this reason I have also committed myself to conduct additional political oversight visits to ensure the plan is implemented timeously and fixing of streetlights are realistic.
Residents are urged to assist us with this campaign, by reporting broken street lights to City Power at 011 375 5555, as well as any illegal tampering with street lights to JMPD on 011 375 5911.
Media enquiries:
Cllr Nico de Jager
MMC: Environment and Infrastructure Services Department
083 899 2127
NicoDe@joburg.org.za
