Boksburg residents are concerned about non-functioning street lights in their suburbs.
Most of them are saying that the street lights have not been functioning in their areas for a long time and it is compromising their safety.
They indicated that they have lodged complaints to the metro but the situation persists.
Fiona Samuels, a Reiger Park resident, says the street lights at the corner of Excelsior and Protea streets have not been functioning for more than two years.
“It is not easy for us to move around at night because it is very dark. We have reported this matter to our councillor, but the streetlights are still not working,” said Samuels.
Another complainant, Alida Annandale Jordaan who lives in Van Dyk Park, said the issue is prevalent in their suburb and they have not seen anyone working on the lights.
“On two major roads – Kingfisher and Barry Marais – the lights are not working and criminals are capitalising on this by stealing cables from traffic lights at night.
“I don’t know why the metro is taking so long to fix street lights or arrest these criminals,” said Jordaan.
The metro spokesperson, Zweli Dlamini, said technicians do respond to street light complaints via the call centre or app.
He added that the metro’s street lights network is under attack as criminals often steal cables and vandalise the infrastructure in the process.
“As a result, we attend to the same complaints over and over, which is a waste of our resources.
“The City is also noticing an increase in faulty street light cables and the analysis of these faults indicates that the bulk of the faults is due to mechanical damage to the outer sleeve of the cable insulation.
“This is probably due to damage during excavation by third parties installing services like fibre networks in our suburbs, rainfall or high water table levels.
“They cause ingress of moisture through the damaged insulation and this leads to cable faults.
“Nonetheless the non-functionality of street lights may have an effect on crime, planned or opportunistic, in our streets. The main purpose of street lighting is not to primarily serve as a crime prevention measure but to add additional lighting to promote the safe use of the roads.
“If a complaint is not attended to, the complainant may follow up on a complaint via the call centre, or may contact the relevant energy depot directly or may ask ward councillor to follow up on the problem,” said Dlamini.
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