Non-functioning streetlights will be thing of past in Pretoria North – Metro
Tshwane technicians’ teams started with repairs on May 30, and work is continuing to fix all reported streetlights.
Mugging, assaults and robberies have plagued Pretoria North, partly due to non-functioning streetlights.
Criminals target unsuspecting victims and use the cover of darkness to commit crimes.
As a result, the Tshwane metro kick-started a streetlights upgrade project to deal with darkness and crime in the area.
Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the technician teams started repairs on May 30, and work is continuing.
“We are aware of the dysfunctional streetlights that have been reported in Pretoria North.
“The metro has channelled resources to attend to the complaints reported through the city’s customer management system,” Mashigo said.
Local ward councillor Yolanda Duvenage said the fixing of streetlights was long overdue.
“We have been reporting this issue for a while and it is of paramount importance to deal with this issue.
“People are not safe especially now since it is winter and it gets very dark outside, people cannot walk after work as they will get mugged.”
Some community members have blamed homeless people.
“Homeless addicts damage the streetlights to steal the elements and wires inside so that they can sell them off to feed their drug habits.
“If some scrapyards could stop buying these elements most of our streetlights will not be tampered with,” a community member who did want to be named said.
According to the latest crime stats for Jan-March 2023, common robberies increased by 21.1% in the Pretoria North policing precinct.
This means more and more people are being robbed in the area.
Common assaults increased by 32.7 %. The station recorded 65 cases of common assault – also the highest since 2019.
Most people believe that the assaults and robberies are mostly caused by non-functioning streetlights.
Some residents feel as if the Tshwane streetlight maintenance teams are not doing enough to solve this.
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However, in the latest Tshwane budget speech delivered by mayor Cilliers Brink, the metro has budgeted R245 million for asset protection.
“This budget will go a long way to ensure the protection of our assets.
“We need to evaluate the business model to incorporate technology and other aspects to safeguard our infrastructure,” said Brink.
“The pylon collapse, endless cable theft, vandalism of infrastructure and targeting of electricity infrastructure is indicative of a low-scale war that we are fighting with criminals who are continuously trying to steal from us,” he added.
The city urges customers to report dysfunctional streetlights by either sending an email to streetlights@tshwane.gov.za or at any City of Tshwane walk-in centres.
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