At first she thought that the man smashing the window of the car in her driveway was terrifying, but when this Fernglen resident saw the hand prints on her bedroom window shortly after midnight, she went ice-cold, realising that the culprit had tried to get inside the house first.
This is the nightmare that Denise Burns and her family have been living through ever since their street lights went dark about a year ago. According to Burns, who resides in Sluysken Avenue, on the border of Fernglen and Sunridge Park, since the lights stopped working, burglaries in the street have increased, sometimes even as many as four in one night.
“In the last five to six months, we have had break-ins reported just about every night on our neighbourhood watch group. There was also a murder across the road from us at the Stella Londt Retirement Home a few months back, before the lockdown,” she said.
What sent further shivers down her spine was an incident two months ago, when her partner’s daughter came for a visit and parked her car in the driveway as usual, only to have the windows smashed and her bags stolen in the early hours of the next morning.
“I remember that the dogs started going crazy and when my partner looked out the window at approximately 01:00, he saw a white male smashing her window and grabbing the bags that she still had in the car. The scary part is that there were hand prints on the window, which means that the guy tried to get into the house first,” Burns explained.
“We don’t feel safe in this neighbourhood anymore. I am terrified of leaving my teenage son alone, just to go to Spar at 18:00 in the evening and I fear for all the kids in the area.
“I can’t even go to the petrol station or visit friends or family in the evening for fear of something happening.
“It is basically (a case of) sleeping with one eye open. Every noise outside the house puts a person in a state of panic. I am even afraid of being home alone by myself at night.”
She added that one of the burglaries took place at the house right behind her own, while the family was asleep inside. “The owner said that his family can’t sleep at night anymore.
“The kids must have horrible nightmares. Who knows what could happen to children playing in their own yards?”
She said that they had even considered moving to a different neighbourhood at one point because her family couldn’t handle being constantly on edge, but couldn’t see why they had to pack up their lives and give up what they have worked so hard for just because street lights cannot get fixed.
According to Burns, she has been trying to get the lights looked at and fixed since September last year, but to no avail. She said that she had called the numbers on the municipality’s website more than 30 times and sent several e-mails to report the problem.
“I have not once gotten a response or even received a reference number.
“I have given full address details as there are no lamp pole numbers on the street lights. Other people have also been complaining and reporting the faulty lights in the neighbourhood on various websites.”
Ward 6 Councillor, Morné Steyn, said that there were currently more than 200 street lights in his ward that do not work. He added that the contract for lightbulb replacements of street lights in the metro had expired.
“My colleagues and I recently had a meeting with Atlas Security and the metro police to discuss extra security measures in the vicinity of the Baakens Valley, since most of the perpetrators come through the valley because it’s so close to this ward,” Steyn said.
“We will be undertaking various operations to patrol the area to increase the safety of residents.”
Steyn said he understood that the tender for the replacement of lightbulbs had been awarded but the contractors needed to be paid first.
NMBM spokesperson, Mamela Ndamase, said, “The slow rate of replacement of faulty bulbs is due to a delay experienced in the procurement of the 57W CFL light bulbs used in street lighting. A formal tender is in place and an order for these bulbs has been placed via the municipality’s supply chain management unit.
“The municipality wishes to assure residents that once the bulbs on order are received, the backlog in street lighting will be addressed as a top priority. The municipality apologises for the inconvenience caused.”
