City attends to more than 13 000 streetlight related requests between April and May

10 June 2026

The City Energy teams attended to 13 074 streetlight-related service requests between 26 April and 25 May 2026. This surge in streetlight-related service requests were driven by the severe storm that impacted the metro over four days in May.

‘Our teams worked incredibly hard to attend to 43 928 overall service requests, which includes 13 074 streetlight related requests during this period. This is an increase from 29 526 electricity related service requests and 9 669 streetlight-related service requests from the previous month.

‘For context and to highlight the storm impact during May, City Energy teams responded to more than 16 000 service requests over those four days alone.

‘The City’s Area East recorded the highest number of streetlight-related service requests attended to, with a total of 5 149. Area East includes Helderberg, Oostenberg, Bloemhof, and Parow. Area South recorded the second highest number of service requests at 4 041, while Area North recorded 3 673 streetlight requests, during the same period.

‘We extend our thanks to all electricity teams for their dedication during this challenging period. We are equally grateful to residents for their patience and understanding as we worked to restore outages and carry out infrastructure repairs across the city. In many cases, storm damage infrastructure repairs have required complete replacement, rather than simply switching power back on. To strengthen our response during this time, our teams redirected resources from less affected areas,  including technical teams and Law Enforcement, to communities where support was most urgently needed.

‘While infrastructure repair work continues across the metro, the City is investing R4 billion as part of its medium-term capital investment programme, to improve the strength and reliability of our electricity distribution network in all areas.

‘The City reminds communities to be our eyes and ears and to look out for suspicious activity near electricity infrastructure. Let’s protect your power together and report vandalism and theft to the City and South African Police Service,’ said the Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Alderman Xanthea Limberg.

City Interventions

• The City’s Protect Your Power campaign highlights the impact of vandalism, theft, and illegal connections that leave communities in the dark.
• Energy Safety Team and City Law Enforcement continue to be visible in all hotspot areas.
• The City continues to roll out anti-theft and vandalism tech solutions.
• We are installing low-street-value equipment in place of copper to discourage theft and vandalism

We ask members of the public to report any suspicious behaviour to us so that we can Protect Your Power together. Electrical infrastructure is typically situated in our communities, often abutting private property. Swift reporting will enable the City to act with speed to prevent extensive damage.

Streetlight-related requests attended to per metro area:

Theft and vandalism remains the biggest driver of streetlight, and power outages

*Note: The data looks at all streetlight-related service requests closed over a particular two-week period. Data is dynamic and new requests are constantly added to the already logged requests, as well as historic service requests. The data looks only at streetlight-related requests and does not include other energy service requests attended to over the period in review.

Let’s ACT: Protect Your Power against theft, illegal connections and vandalism

• Report suspicious behaviour to the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre: 021 480 7700
• Report illegal scrap yards to the ‘Copperheads’: 0800 222 771 (toll free, 24/7, anonymous tip-offs)

SAPS remains the lead authority in crime prevention.

Report to the City

Streetlight and electricity faults:

Call Centre: 0860 103 089
SMS: 31220
WhatsApp: 060 018 1505

End

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office