Street lights burning bright during the day
THE Rep this week launches a new series, Komani Focus, which will aim to identify and seek solutions to infrastructural and other problems in the CBD and residential areas.
In the first instalment, The Rep reporter
Abongile Solundwana
takes up the issue of street and high mast lights which have been burning during the day – while in some areas street lights are no longer functional – in the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality area.
Concern over lights which have been on during daytime have been raised over the past five months.
Sindisa Nkwini said street lights have been on and off in Ezibeleni since 2014.
“We have four high mast lights that are currently on in the day in Zone 2 – one near the Ezibeleni Clinic, one near the Howard Ben Mazwi Primary School, one in Chencele and another close to the community hall.”
Nkwini said the problem had been ongoing for years.
In the Komani CBD, Ebden Street has been a focal area with street lights often on during the day.
A Westbourne resident, who declined to be named, said the area had the opposite problem with many streets without lights at night.
The problem had been ongoing for several months and while related concerns had been forwarded to the municipality, no action had been taken.
The problem seems not only to be confined to Komani.
During a visit to Cacadu on October 10, The Rep reporter saw street lights burning in the main street during the day.
Dordrecht resident Dudley Fitz said high mast lights had been burning in the Sinako township during the day for more than six months now.
According to Eskom’s tariff book, the energy used by high mast lights and regular street lights per hour depended on the wattage and number of lights.
“The energy is calculated using the formula ‘Energy in kWh = wattage/1000 x number of lights x 1 hr.”
An Eskom source, reacting to queries from The Rep, said the technical problems which resulted in street lights being on during the day in some parts of a municipal area, were due to various factors, such as faulty timers due to [a lack of] Municipality spokesman Fundile Feketshane said the municipality was faced with a myriad of financial challenges.
Feketshane said the municipality had secured a service provider that was currently on site repairing all street light faults.
“The municipality call upon our communities to bear with us as we are trying all the best to ensure that there is lights, street lights and traffic lights working in all our areas.”
He said the technical services department had drawn up a maintenance plan to ensure that all lights were fixed within the best possible turnaround time.
“The municipality will work with other service delivery partners and law enforcement agencies to curb vandalism and our communities must help us protect those assets as they make a valuable contribution to their lives.”
At the time of going to press, Emalahleni Municipality (which includes Dordrecht and Cacadu) communication officer Luthando Nqumkana did not reply to questions about street lights burning during the daytime.