Residents of the greater Durban area have been hard hit by streetlight outages over the last several months. To date, the eThekwini Municipality has recorded 30 824 ‘job cards’ in relation to streetlight outages.
This only adds to the complaining residents’ woes who say they have lost hope in the eThekwini Municipality to repair these outages and have further raised concerns that the dark streets and highways could contribute to an increase in crime.
At the recent full council meeting of eThekwini Municipality, held on 28 July, the Active Citizens Coalition (ACC) tabled questions in relation to the prolonged streetlight outages and theft of municipal property.
At council, ACC Party Whip in Council, Imtiaz Syed, said that the eThekwini Municipality remains saddled with widespread streetlight outages which have persisted for several months, without any forthcoming solution. “While exploring reasons for such long-term outages, we have established to some degree that there is a high volume of vandalism and theft of municipal infrastructure.
“This will include the stripping of electricity cables that power the streetlights, and in some cases, bulkheads are even being stolen. Add to this the issues of water meters that are being stolen almost daily, along with guard rails on the highways and byways,” said Syed.
He said that it was concerning that there could only be a “black market” for financial gain and this could be a reason for the high level of theft of municipal property. This includes copper cables and water meters.
“The circle will perpetuate until it is broken by way of the municipality’s intervention. Theft and damage to municipal property is a disease and a crime that clearly cuts into the city’s financial strain that has a direct or indirect impact on all of the city’s activities and responsibilities. While streets and highways are left in darkness, one of the more serious concerns is the rise of criminal activity,” said Syed.
EThekwini Municipality, in response to questions, confirmed that theft and vandalism was the root cause of the outages. While the city reels under vandalism and outages, according to responses from the relevant departments, about 68% of the lights were restored but there remained “limited resources” in general to attend to all the outages speedily.
There are presently 100 technical staff employed with limited trucks and material to attend to the faults, with an additional 30 contractors.
Regarding the question of whether the city has opened any criminal cases related to theft and destruction to municipal property with SAPS, to date, no cases have been opened. However, the city “was looking at strategies to address challenges with SAPS” and that cases will be opened in the future.
Syed further asked what are the financial implications in terms of losses, repairs and restoration, and the response was that the city was in the process of quantifying this, but it could run into “millions”. Figures will be presented at the next Council sitting this month.
EThekwini said that it was working with various department heads to “cap vandalism and to find ways and means” for better results. The city is also working with SAPS in relation to the Second-Hand Goods Act to identify unauthorised scrap metal dealers to enforce the act.
As for community participation, the city responded, saying that they are requesting all councillors to encourage the community to safeguard infrastructure. “We need law enforcement structures to help curb the problem.”
Syed said that community police forums should address the issue of vandalism at meetings and initiate an initiative where activists can address and report vandalism. Queries can be directed to Councillor M Ismail on 082-828-7589.
