Fury at poor street lighting in the Metro
Sanco says situation leads to more crime
COMPLAINTS that various areas of Buffalo City were without streetlights were not being adequately addressed by metro authorities, residents said this week. Organisations and private individuals from suburbs and townships across the city complained that many areas still had broken streetlights or were non-existent.
The South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) accused the metro of failing residents and said the lack of lighting contributed to crime.
“All you see is broken lights along the main roads. Some have been like this for many years. Do we deserve such a status [metro] if we can’t fix broken streetlights?” asked Sanco convenor Xolani Somaca.
Although questions were sent to BCM on the matter, spokesman Thandy Matebese had not responded at the time of going to print last night.
A Saturday Dispatch drive around the city this week found:
Areas of Nompumelelo township without streetlights or broken streetlights;
The area behind Beacon Bay Retail Park without streetlights;
The Mdantsane access road which has no working streetlights;
At Mdantsane Highway taxi rank, streetlights are not working;
Mdantsane’s NU6 near the stadium has no working streetlights; and
The road into Mdantsane from the first set of robots to the Mdantsane City Mall has no working streetlights.
In King William’s Town problems were found at:
Zwelitsha’s Zone 8, a street near Ngqika Primary School;
The main road near the Zwelitsha court; and
In Ginsberg township. Somaca said most ward councillors knew about these problems. “We have been complaining about this and we are not getting any positive feedback,” Somaca said.
He said the inadequate lighting led to crime, and that people were being attacked walking to and from work.
Nzukiso Melane of Nompumelelo township said he had been robbed more than once “due to the darkness of our streets”.
In Mdantsane, Siyabonga Nxaxho said residents were tired of complaining: “We can’t walk at night any more in our streets, we don’t have freedom.”
BCM ward councillor from the Beacon Bay area Makaya Bopi confirmed there were problems. “I’ve been asking for this to be fixed as people are complaining about crime.” — bonganif@dispatch.co.za