Streetlights play an important role in the safety of the community at night and without lights, as soon as 19:00, the streets become extremely dark which makes it impossible to see a person standing at the street corner until you’re approximately ten feet from that person.
Mrs Mokoena, a Turffontein resident and a regular churchgoer at Rosettenville’s Universal Church was robbed and assaulted after a Thursday evening church service on September 12, before 19:30, on her way back home. She said she remembers very well that the lights were off in the whole of De Villiers Street before Rotunda Park where she was robbed and assaulted. She was about to cross Von Brandis Street to enter the park when she unfortunately came across several men waiting for prey who forcefully took her cellphone and bruised her while she was defending her belongings in a very dark corner.
A similar situation took place on August 30 when an anonymous man was robbed right in front of his house at Church Street in Turffontein coming from work after 19:00. He said it was the second night in a row that the lights were not on and that night he felt the dark cloud following him from behind even though he did not see anything as he kept on looking back as he was walking home. Suddenly as he was trying to open the gate at his home, three men attacked him from behind and snatched his laptop bag that contained his laptop, office keys and a monthly bus tag that he uses on a daily basis to commute to work.
If the street lights were on he believes that he would have still had his belongings with him today.
Weeks before the man was robbed he witnessed an early morning robbery on his way to work at 05:30 in the pitch black corner of Eloff and Church Street not far from where he was also robbed. He said it could be much better if the lights can stay on for 12 hours, from 18:00 to the next morning at 06:00 to eradicate crime, particularly robberies.
Mthunzi Tsetse
