Robot vandals cost city millions
The municipality is looking into new vandal proof plates for the city's traffic lights.
REPAIRS to municipal traffic lights is costing the city millions of rands each year as a result of vandalism.
According to municipal spokeswoman Tozi Mthethwa, the majority of traffic light faults were caused by vandalism, particularly by street vendors wishing to cash in by manually directing traffic and collecting tips from motorists. She said it was a problem the city was trying hard to solve.
Berea Mail published an article earlier this year about the traffic lights at the intersection of Rick Turner and Vusi Mzimele Road, which are frequently tampered with.
Andrew Aucamp from eThekwini Transport Authority confirmed that the lights were being interfered with by traders.
“They cause a short, resulting in signals flashing, and then they go and collect money for it. We installed vandal resistant cover plates, but now they use a crowbar to break these,” he said.
Another troublesome intersection is the Solomon Mah-langu Avenue (Edwin Swales Drive) and South Coast Road, one of the busiest in the country.
Mthethwa said the municipality was in the process of procuring new vandal-resistant pole covers, and urged motorists not to pay the informal traders doing pointduty. She said Metro police officers would be assisting with enforcement.
Although the municipality was unable to say how much the repair of vandalised traffic lights was costing, its medium-term revenue and expenditure framework for 2014/15 to 2016/17 indicated that R5.4 million had been budgeted for traffic signal maintenance, which would be shared equally between three traffic signal companies, for central, northern, and southern areas. The contracts would run for the next two years.
