Unspent funds on street lighting has caused concern amongst political parties and ratepayers. During a Full Council Meeting on Monday, 2 December, eThekwini Municipality revealed that the operating budget on street lighting for the next three financial years is a mere R335 million.
Ratepayers believe that this has been an ongoing issue for over a decade. DA Councillor Yogis Govender said that the street lights debacle has been plaguing eThekwini Municipality for almost a decade. “It is unfathomable how eThekwini Municipality is unable to eradicate this irritation for hundreds of ratepayers. Reference number upon reference number gets generated but we all know where they go to die. These references are simply purged from the system whilst the resident is oblivious and waits in vain,” Govender added.
Govender believes that there is no sense of urgency in dealing decisively with defective street lights and every year, the same promises are made but not much of a dent. Additionally, if and when repairs are done, it doesn’t last long.
“Certain officials have become totally unresponsive to councillors and complainants alike with one even telling me that we must just have patience. Residents have been patient for years. Whilst we welcome the directive to identify unspent budget, noting that some resources cost almost R7 million a month; you have no budget and that the operating budget for the next three years is a staggering R335 million – a figure in which you have to find that budget,” Govender said.
Govender suggested that the city hold their own workshop or stakeholder meetings to find a solution with the legislated custodians dealing with this and not fob off responsibility to those that are ill-equipped to deal with the city wide scourge.
“What is worrisome is the fact that in all of our budget allocations we are spending money on nice to haves, frills, gifts, entertainment yet something else that causes much frustration and even protesting is the delays in repairs occasioned by unavailability of test room officers. The budget that is recorded is insufficient and we appeal that this be revisited. We support this item but this council needs to exercise transparency with ratepayers instead of allowing councillors to bear the brunt of your failures,” Govender concluded.
EThekwini Ratepayers and Residents Association President, Ish Prahladh, questioned the safety of ratepayers’ money and echoed Govender’s message regarding the issue being over a decade old. He added, “Officials need to be held accountable but this is just being shoved under the carpet. Why such a high budget when the infrastructure needs to be attended to first? This is the problem as there’s no watchdog watching how officials spend our money.”
The report revealed that the increase in outstanding street lighting work orders from 2015 to 2024 highlighted the severe impact of lacking a maintenance contract and insufficient funding.
Furthermore, this necessitated the number of contracted services to be increased from 30 to 63 teams. The budget is not aligned to these resources which come with bucket and crane trucks. These resources cost approximately R7 million per month and, currently, there is no budget allocation. The operating budget on street lighting and the high mast over the next three financial years is R335 million. The capital budget on high-mast installation and festive lighting is R52 million.
