Media statement
Ald Cilliers Brink
Executive Mayor of Tshwane
5 September 2024
Public lighting is one of the key priorities for this administration and we are fully committed to increasing illumination levels across all communities in Tshwane. We have teams that are out regularly repairing street lights as part of our Tshwane Lighting Programme.
Yesterday, 4 September 2024, the MMC for Human Settlements, Cllr Ofentse
Madzebatela, and I joined the City’s Urban Management Programme on Francis Baard Street in the Pretoria CBD where various teams were busy on the ground delivering on our promise to prioritise street light repairs and provide other services, including tree pruning and garbage collection.
Yesterday alone, the teams in Region 3 attended to 553 street lights and a total of 329 lights were successfully repaired with the lights coming on. Today, work continues to light up the remaining 224 from yesterday. Region 3 includes the Pretoria CBD, Arcadia, the Moot area, Capital Park and Atteridgeville.
From 1 July 2024 to date, Region 3 has fixed over 4 000 street lights, predominantly in the inner city.
We view the inner city as a strategic node that is home to all Tshwane residents, businesses, government departments and learning institutions, resulting in different groups of people converging in the Pretoria CBD to work, study and conduct business. Equally, major roads such as Francis Baard Street, Es’kia Mphahlele Drive and Nelson Mandela Drive serve as key routes, and it is important that illumination levels are adequate.
As we work towards increasing illumination levels, we must remind our residents that cable theft and vandalism remain challenges for the City. Often street lights are stripped and vandalised a day after we repair them. However, the City is not deterred as we are working on innovative solutions such as using cables with less value to protect our infrastructure.
Our Urban Management Programme has also fixed street lights in Soshanguve, Mabopane, Olievenhoutbosch and Centurion. We will not be distracted by those seeking to stop the progress we are making. We are committed to building a city that works for all its people.
Enquiries:
Sipho Stuurman