New street lights keep criminal elements at bay

03 June 2015

 

The angels of darkness that have been stalking several Johannesburg communities have reached the end of their nefarious reign after City Power, the City of Johannesburg's electricity utility, installed more than 2 180 street lights in these areas.

 

A total of 917 of these street lights are already providing adequate lighting in eight communities while the remaining 1 271 – covering about nine areas – are still to be switched on by Eskom, the national power utility.  The energisation is expected to take place soon.

 

The installation of the street lights in the various areas followed several representations and petitions by residents, who had been living in fear for their lives in the wake of growing criminality in their neighbourhoods.

 

These criminal incidents were attributed largely to the lack of public lighting or to poor visibility at night.  City Power made R25 million available for this purpose in the current financial year.

 

Last week Member of the Mayoral Committee for Finance Clr Geoffrey Makhubo allocated the entity an operating budget of R15,4 billion for the 2015-2016 financial year and R4,6 billion capital budget for the next three financial years to provide and maintain electricity infrastructure and roll out Smart City initiatives throughout the city.

 

Member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment and Infrastructure Services Clr Matshidiso Mfikoe says criminals who have been instilling fear in these areas now have nowhere to hide.  "With these street lights they can be spotted from kilometres away," she says.

 

The communities that have already been illuminated are Honeydew in Roodepoort, where 414 street lights have been installed, Radiokop, also in Roodepoort (104) East Bank in Alexandra (82) Randjespark in Midrand (146), Eikenhof (52), Cumberland Street in Bryanston (32), Mafelandawonye in Ivory Park (44) and Uranium Road in Fourways (43).

 

The areas where street lights have been installed but City Power is waiting for Eskom to energise them are President's Park in Midrand (85), Slovoville near Dobsonville in Soweto (78), Sunninghill (86), Sol Plaatjie in Roodepoort (401), Kyasands (143), River Club (178), Douglasdale (41) Broadacres (248) and Paulshof (11).