Metro repairs thousands of streetlights

Tshwane mayor Randall Williams remained committed to ensuring that Pretoria streets were lit and safe for motorists.

Williams said as part of prioritising service delivery more than 60 000 street lights were repaired.

“Since assuming office in November, a core priority of the new administration has been ensuring that we address the backlog in street light repairs,” he said.

“To date, over the last few months, we have repaired over 60 000 street lights.”

Williams said there was still work that needed to be done and repair teams were continuously moving across the metro to ensure that streets and suburbs were illuminated.

He said roaming scouts were also deployed to identify where there were areas that needed focused intervention.

“A core part of our streetlight illumination strategy has been to focus on major arterial roads so that we can create safe conditions for driving at night,” Williams said.

“One of the challenges that are pervasive across the city that hampers our progress is the high instances of vandalism and theft that results in damage to our street lights.

“This occurs when individuals tamper directly with the street light poles to get at the switches or to steal or damage the cables.”

He said such criminal actions caused immense disruption to the metro’s infrastructure.

He said well-lit streets assisted motorists to navigate the streets at night and also ensured that criminals could not operate in the dark.

“As we continue to light up our city, I want to implore all residents to be vigilant and report any individuals that they see damaging or stealing city infrastructure,” he said.

“A well-illuminated city is a safe city.”

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram