Residents of Kipling Road in Kensington live in constant fear of the dangers that come with night time, due to street lights that have not been functioning for months now.
“It is a huge security risk. Someone can get robbed and murdered at night, and no-one would be aware of it until daylight. One cannot even see the pavement one has to walk on,” a resident who wished to remain anonymous said.
Since March this year, many residents have reported the lack of proper lighting on the busy road, but have received no help so far. “The one street light across the road only works intermittently; it makes me think of disco lights. It shines for 30 seconds and then goes off for 60 seconds; I have counted this numerous times,” the frustrated resident said.
Nelson Mandela Bay Municipal Ward 7 councillor, Brendon Pegram, said that he is aware of the faulty street lights.
“Faulty street-lighting is a massive problem, not only in Ward 7, but across the metro. Ward 7 currently has just over 500 street lights that are non-functioning,” he said.
“I keep a close record of all faulty street lights in my ward, and have a list for each suburb for ease of submitting it to the department. as well as keeping track of progress made with repairs.
“In the last couple of months, we have seen a massive decline in street light repairs, notwithstanding the fact that we regularly forward the updated lists of faulty lights to the department.
Unfortunately, it seems as if the department has come to a complete standstill in this regard. I request weekly feedback from our officials, but unfortunately seldom receive any proper advice. I do, however, diligently share any information I receive from the administration with my communities.”
Pegram said that out of frustration he recently met with the City Manager, Dr Noxolo Nqazi, for urgent assistance.
“I explained to the City Manager that our residents are frustrated, as it seems the municipality is making very little progress in fixing street lights across NMB.
“She requested I provide her with my list of all non-functioning street lights. In turn she has discussed my complaints with the executive director of Electricity and Energy, Luvuyo Magalela.
“I have requested a follow-up meeting so that we can get confirmation as to plan to fix all outstanding lights in our area,” Pegram concluded.
Faulty street lights are not the only concerns residents have; some issues include water running down streets, and not enough speed humps to control speeding cars.
“There is only one speed hump in the whole of Kipling Road, and it is at the pedestrian crossing. Vehicles speed in this street whilst kids have to run to avoid being hit.
“I requested that more speed humps be erected or even a robot somewhere, just to break the speed of vehicles. This was followed by the metro re-painting the unclear road markings. One gentleman had the audacity to ask me, ”Are you happy now?”
“They keep on saying the humps are to come in future, but there is no money to attend to them now. We request something to be done about these issues,” the resident said.
