After months of complaints and complete darkness at night along the R27 in Table View, motorists are now able to feel safer as streetlights are being replaced.
The work involves cable replacement with aluminium which will serve as a deterrent to would-be thieves and vandalism attempts.
The R27 has been constantly under attack from vandals and thieves, damaging the infrastructure and leading to outages despite repeated repairs.
Fred Hendricks, a motorist, reached out to TygerBurger a few weeks ago saying that the lack of streetlights on the R27 poses a safety risk. “I travel on this stretch of road every day and mostly at night.
“It is so dark at night and this creates an opportunity for criminals,” he says.
He hoped that the City of Cape Town will replace the street lights.
“It will help us see better and avoid accidents,” he says.
The replacement
The City says the work will be completed in stages and is expected to cost about R850 000. The City’s Mayco member for energy Beverley van Reenen says the replacement of cable with aluminium is a new and necessary action which they are taking across the metro to tackle cable theft.
“I am pleased to have seen the work which is ongoing along these important stretches of road. With the cable replacement with aluminium, it is hoped that the lights will remain on and reduce the incidents of theft and vandalism,” Van Reenen says.
Approximately 6 km of roadway will now be lit “which provides an important safety benefit to residents and is an essential deterrent to criminals to steer clear”.
“The City has attended to hundreds of electricity vandalism-related faults in recent months and disconnects illegal connections to City infrastructure across the metro on a regular basis. We encourage community members to assist us in ending this scourge. The City has some of the highest burn rates of streetlights in the country and work continues to keep up the standards and to improve,” she says.
“The City apologises for any inconvenience caused when streetlights are out, especially due to perpetual theft of cables and vandalising of the infrastructure. Apart from launching the electricity safety teams to help fight the vandalising and theft of electrical infrastructure, the City is replacing material that is in high demand due to scrap metal value with material that does not have the same value. City teams are on the ground daily in areas across the metro to complete essential maintenance and upgrades to electricity infrastructure,” Van Reenen says.
- Any suspicious behaviour must be reported to the City’s law enforcement agencies or the City’s Fraud Hotline on 0800 1100 77 or to the police.
