The Reeds community organises LED streetlights
The lights were supplied by residents, while the AfriForum Centurion branch helped install them.
Residents of Simonsvlei Crescent in The Reeds are hopeful that newly installed LED streetlights will light up their street.
Last weekend, AfriForum’s Centurion branch assisted the residents install new streetlights.
“When it comes to broken streetlights, it is a dark picture in many towns and cities across the country and Centurion is no exception,” said branch chairperson Andre de Bruyn.
“Hennie de Beer, a resident contacted us about all the streetlights in his street. [The lights] have been off for the last few years and the crime just keeps increasing,” he explained.
“We immediately started working together to get the project started.”
He said De Beer offered 13 lights for free, while another community member who is a qualified electrician offered to assist.
The branch rented a cherry picker and the plan was set into action.
“Dark streets offer criminals favourable conditions for their conniving work which obviously has serious safety implications for residents and we cannot continue to look away,” said De Bruyn.
The civil rights organisation’s district co-ordinator, Dewet Ungerer said that the initiative was made possible by the Memorandum of Understanding that it signed with the Tshwane metro in March this year.
“This is once again proof that well-organised communities that have the necessary processes in place can help to stop decay in our communities,” said Ungerer.
Multiple reports of streetlights not working in the region are being slowly addressed with several lights recently being repaired.
At the end of July, streetlights in Rooihuiskraal Road, where several cable theft attempts had cut power in the area, were repaired in hopes of curbing the crime in the area.
The metro previously told Rekord that almost 7 000 streetlights were faulty as it attempted to implement a turnaround strategy.
“The region has a dedicated team that deals with streetlights. It focuses on streetlight maintenance and repairs,” said metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo.
He said that while it attempted to address the backlog, the metro was undertaking a pilot project in Lyttelton to install solar streetlights.
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