Despite assurances from the ANC-led Tshwane Council about 2 weeks back that all streetlights in Ward 61 are being repaired, there are still a number of streetlights that are not working, some of them for more than a year.
This follows a number of streetlights near the corner of 2nd Ave and Cuprene Str remaining in disrepair for over a year or longer now, while streetlights on the Military Road also remain non-functioning for some time now. In Erasmia, a number of streetlights are not working with some of them remaining on 24 hours a day. This follows residents of Lenchen and Willem Erasmus Streets complaining that despite logging complaints with the Council, the streetlights still remain faulty, resulting in their area being dark and unsafe.
Wassim Ahmad (53) of Lenchen Street told the Laudium Sun, “We have a problem with our streetlights not working for about 6 months now. Although we have reported the matter to the Council several times, our complaints seem to be falling on deaf ears. What is frustrating is that we are living next to a veld and it’s not safe at night, as many criminals use the darkness and veld as a cover to attack the residents. We are living in fear as we could be hijacked at night because of the dark streets. We have to use solar lights so that we can see outside at night. The Council is doing nothing to attend to our grievances. Ironically, some of the streetlights are left on during the day, but go off at night. We urge the Council to attend to our problem and stop the unnecessary wastage of electricity by keeping the lights on during the day.”
Another resident from Willem Erasmus Street, Bhawna Govan (54) told the Laudium Sun, “We have a problem with the streetlights which are not working. Since February, these streetlights have not been working and what is frustrating, is that we have been reporting the matter to the Council many times. It not safe on our street, especially at night, because of the darkness. We live adjacent to the veld and
are in fear that criminals could use the veld as a cover to steal from the residents. We have also been sending the Council emails, urging them to repair these streetlights, but the Council has so far only sent one person to check the streetlights but the lights were not repaired. We also have streetlights which are left on during the day on our street, which is a total waste of electricity.”
Tilly Padyachy Chetty (57) also from Willem Erasmus Street said, “We are appealing to the Council to repair these non-working streetlights before someone gets killed on our street due to crime, as the darkness attracts criminals.”
Paul Bennet from Cllr Patel’s office said, “All the streetlights which are not working in our Ward have been reported to the Council.”
