POLOKWANE – While parts of the city is often in the dark due to Eskom’s scheduled load-shedding, all the lights at the Peter Mokaba Sports Complex stay switched on, residents claim.
Residents said it was unfair that the municipality could waste electricity in this manner while they had to endure without electricity for two hours at a time.
“Last Monday there was nothing happening at the Peter Mokaba Sports Complex and there was no one there except for the security guards. There was no reason for the lights to be on. After 21:00, I went to the sports complex and took photos of the lights that were on. I am sure they were burning the whole night, because they were still on long after 23:00,” a resident, who did not wish to be named, said.
Municipal spokesperson, Malesela Maubane, said it was not the municipality’s practise to ignore measures to curb electricity wastage.
“The stadium uses a timer system for perimeter lights that automatically go off at a certain time, usually after 19:30. When there are activities inside the stadium the timers are often put on override. Lights that are switched on are lower energy perimeter lights, not high mast or floodlights. During load-shedding, the stadium generator would automatically kick-in as soon as the power goes off,” Maubane said.
He added that this process would happen as well when electricity came back on, forcing the available personnel to manually switch off the lights at the building management system.
“It could be that at the time the photos were taken, personnel were still trying to negotiate that transition to manually switch off the lights.”
