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City of Cape Town energy teams worked around the clock during the festive period, fixing an impressive 6 666 streetlight problems between 26 December 2025 and 25 January 2026.
The hard-working crews also resolved a total of 22 457 electricity-related service requests over the 31-day period. “I am immensely proud and grateful for the hard work and dedication of our technical teams throughout the busy festive peak period,” said Mayco Member for Energy, Xanthea Limberg. “Their commitment to keeping our streetlights on is backed by the City’s strategic investment in electricity infrastructure to keep communities safe.”
245 000
The teams attended to an average of around 215 streetlight requests per day – helping the City’s streetlight burn rate recover to an impressive 89,9% average over the last two reported months. The City maintains a massive network of over 245 000 streetlights across Cape Town. This year’s R75,5 million streetlight capital budget will help grow and maintain these vital community assets. But criminals continue to target streetlights, with theft, vandalism and illegal connections causing most outages.
“In most cases, tens of meters of cables and entire fittings are stolen, causing large and often complex streetlight faults,” Limberg explained.
Visible
The City’s Energy Safety Team and Law Enforcement remain visible in hotspot areas, while officials explore new anti-theft and vandalism solutions.
Residents can help protect their neighbourhood lights by reporting suspicious behaviour to the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre on 021 480 7700. “We ask members of the public to continue reporting any suspicious behaviour so we can Protect Your Power together,” Limberg said.
