City visits Macassar to assess streetlight vandalism and interventions
12 March 2026
City Energy teams conducted a streetlight infrastructure assessment in Macassar as part of the Energy Directorate’s efforts to improve public lighting in communities across the city.
Macassar forms part of the City of Cape Town’s streetlight infrastructure maintenance and upgrading programme aimed at ensuring that infrastructure is repaired, maintained and upgraded where necessary.
‘Our teams remain active on the ground in all communities across the city, maintaining our extensive public lighting network of more than 245 000 streetlights. My visit to Macassar forms part of our focused efforts to oversee public infrastructure maintenance, ensuring all communities remain well lit. In addition, we are closely monitoring our City-wide streetlight burn rate, which currently sits at 87,7% according to our most recent data, just shy of our 90% target
Theft, vandalism and illegal connections remain the City’s most significant challenge. Although Macassar falls within an Eskom supply area, limiting the City’s Blue Downs Depot to only public lighting service requests, vandalism in this district alone has already cost the City more than R1,9 million from over 2810 logged public service requests, crucial funds that could otherwise have supported critical energy infrastructure needed to drive Cape Town’s economy.
‘During our visit to the area, we saw instances of extreme vandalism where concrete streetlight poles were chopped in half for their cables. Macassar is one of the areas which sees repeated incidents of theft and vandalism, which places strain on our resources and delays service restoration.
‘We are prioritising repair and maintenance work in the area, in addition to LED upgrades within the broader district. The City is also exploring high-tech infrastructure protection solutions to take back our infrastructure from vandals who seek to steal and destroy our infrastructure.
‘While our Energy Safety teams and City Law Enforcement officials continue to maintain visibility in hotspot areas, we call on residents to be our eyes and ears and to assist us in protecting our power infrastructure. Reporting vandalism and illegal activities helps us to respond faster and ensures that residents and all communities benefit from reliable electricity services,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Alderman Xanthea Limberg.
Protect Your Power Campaign to tackle R62 million vandalism, theft crisis
The City spent approximately R62 million in the past financial year on maintenance and replacement of vandalised or stolen electricity infrastructure.
Protect Your Power is a first-of-a-kind campaign, which highlights the massive impact of vandalism, theft, and illegal connections that leave our communities, neighbourhoods, and roadways in the dark. The City is calling on all residents to help us Protect Your Power and build safer, brighter communities by reporting any suspicious activity anonymously to the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre (PECC).
Let’s ACT: Protect Your Power
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Report anonymously to: Public Emergency Communication Centre: 021 480 7700
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‘Copperheads’: 0800 222 771 (toll free, 24/7, anonymous tip-offs)
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Report any abnormal-looking power infrastructure, like open substations or electricity boxes, hanging wires.
The SAPS remains the lead authority in crime prevention.
Caption: The Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Alderman Xanthea Limberg (third from right) with the Ward Councillor, Peter Helfrich (left) and the City’s Energy team
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
