City Power’s turnaround time to fix streetlights explained
Power entity spokesperson Isaac Mangena said theft and vandalism remained a significant challenge.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena addressed the issue of non-functioning streetlights.
“City Power’s turnaround time for repairing and restoring streetlights is six days across the seven regions of the city,” he said
Mangena added the process of identifying a fault could vary, as the technical team must inspect the entire network to locate the issue.
Read more: City Power is experiencing a high number of vandalised streetlights
He said if the fault was related to a cable, the situation becomes more complex due to the kilometres of underground and overhead cables the technical team must assess.
“In these cases, the team may need to walk several kilometres using specialised equipment to pinpoint the fault. Once identified, the team must excavate to access the cable, a task that can be time-consuming, especially when navigating challenging terrain like concrete or roads. In some cases, we must collaborate with the Johannesburg Roads Agency to obtain a wayleave for digging on roads.”
He added the fault identification and repair process could take from a few hours to several days, depending on the complexity of the issue, with the same time frame applied to repairs and restoration, particularly for unique or complicated faults.
“All City Power Service Delivery Centres conduct regular monitoring exercises, known as ‘spotting’ twice a month. During these exercises, our technical teams drive through the streets within each SDC to identify any streetlights that may be out of service and deploy a repair team to any non-functional streetlights, ensuring a proactive approach rather than relying solely on logged calls from residents.”
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Mangena added streetlights were frequently dismantled by criminals for valuable components, particularly the aerial bundle cables (ABC), often used for illegal electricity connections.
He said criminal syndicates in informal settlements created unauthorised ‘parallel electricity distribution enterprises’ by selling stolen electricity to homes, backrooms and/or businesses such as taverns. Light fittings are also stolen to bypass legal meters, further facilitating electricity theft. ABCs are similarly exploited by illegal mining operations, such as Zama-Zamas, to light old mining shafts.
“A project, Jozi Maboneng, is at the specification development stage and is aimed at addressing both theft and vandalism incidents as well as maintenance issues within the public lighting space. However, the City Power Security Risk Department will continue to patrol the hotspot areas to ensure we have visibility and prevent further cable theft and vandalism.”
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