Arcadia residents are fuming, as the street lights in the area remain on throughout the day and night, wasting unnecessary electricity.
According to a concerned resident, Brian Darroll, the problem has been ongoing for months and in most instances, the street lights are on 24 hours a day. The street lights in question are: along Stanza Bopape Street, between Leyds and Pine streets, on Johann Street, between Stanza Bopape and Pretorius streets, Pine Street from Stanza Bopape Street, Leyds Street, between Stanza Bopape and Madiba streets, and a small portion of Madiba Street from Leyds Street to Stanza Bopape Street.
In light of the recent power outages in parts of the city, residents are worried about the Tshwane metro’s stance on saving electricity. Darroll said he first became aware of the problem in the beginning of January and, to date, the situation has remained the same.
“When I first saw it, I thought they were working on the electricity because there were problems of electricity outages in many parts of Pretoria at the time.” After noticing that nothing was being done to rectify the situation, Darroll began to worry about the waste of money and electricity.
He said that it was particularly bothersome considering Eskom’s daily campaigns to encourage people to save electricity. “The lights have been burning without fail since the beginning of the year,” he said, but admitted that he had never tried to report the matter to metro. “As a pensioner, I don’t have the money to spend hours calling the metro and running around after them. I can’t afford that,” Darroll said.
He believed the media would do a better job of making the metro aware of the problem. The Tshwane metro’s spokesperson, Blessing Manale, said they acknowledged that some of the street lights might have the problem discussed and also expressed concerned about the problem, since it cost the metro money that could not be recovered.
He added that problems would continue to escalate if residents did not complain about them or report them to the metro. “Residents are welcome to lodge complaints with the metro, because we attend to the problems,” he said.
He said the streetlights were supposed to switch on and off automatically, unless there was a fault. Manale reminded residents that the metro cared and urged them to work together with the metro for the development of the city.
He said that if there was any problem with the street lights that residents could easily send emails detailing the problem to streetlights@tshwane.gov.za or customercare@tshwane.gov.za.
Manale said they were looking at green technology to save electricity, such as using solar panels to generate power for the street lights.
