Tshwane begins two-month streetlight repair push across the capital

The City of Tshwane has begun a two-month programme to repair streetlights and high-mast lights across the capital, with work scheduled to continue into October.

Scope and early rollout

Mayor Nasiphi Moya announced that the city’s energy and electricity business unit has started the repair plan, which will run for two months. Work will be rolled out up to October and several suburbs and townships have already been included in the programme.

The city said the programme has already covered Wonderboom, Montana, Ramotse, Doornpoort, Annlin, Sinoville, Rooiwal, Arcadia, Atteridgeville, Lynnwood and Groenkloof.

A total of 127 tampers were installed to the value of R11 million.

On-the-ground repairs and staffing changes

At the start of the week, the newly appointed MMC for utility services, Sam Molatelo Mashola, who replaced Frans Boshielo last month, was on the ground with a team attending to electricity faults and repairing streetlights in Nellmapius.

Residents and councillors report ongoing faults

Despite the repair drive, ward and opposition representatives said faulty and inconsistent streetlighting remain a concern.

“When there’s a power outage, the City of Tshwane team comes out to restore the power, but afterwards the streetlights don’t work. We also have a major problem with the day/night switches. The lights stay on during the day and go off at night, or they burn 24 hours a day,”

“Even though we realise it’s wasteful, we’re just too glad to have the lights on, even if they run 24/7. When you report it, the city team comes to fix it, but usually it never works again after that,”

Those comments came from Ward 1 councillor Leon Kruyshaar, who said 80% of the streetlights in his ward in Pretoria West were not working.

Ward 85 councillor Jacqui Uys said Tshwane “just seems unable to get its streetlights working consistently.” Uys, who has had many out-of-order or faulty streetlights reported in her ward in Pretoria East, said the city needed to ensure the streetlights were working at night.

Opposition criticism

DA Tshwane mayoral candidate Cilliers Brink said in Moreleta Park, residents had resorted to lighting up their own streets because Tshwane’s streetlights aren’t working reliably.

Republican Conference of Tshwane councillor Lex Middelberg said the average turnaround time to repair a streetlight is over three years after the fault has been reported to the municipality and that most broken streetlights are no longer reported to the city.

“In a functional city, all streetlights are replaced on schedule once the lamps reach the end of their expected lifespan. There is no waiting for the lights to actually fail. Tshwane was still Pretoria the last time that happened,” she added.

What to watch next

The city’s two-month repair programme is underway and includes installation of tampers and targeted repairs in multiple suburbs. Councillors and opposition figures continue to press the municipality on persistent outages, day/night switch faults and long repair turnaround times.