Latest data shows how City Energy teams sparked to eradicate streetlight service request backlogs

21 October 2025

Energy teams have worked hard to eradicate any historic streetlight-related faults as well as a high number of faults caused by the inclement weather damage during winter. This is evident in the streetlight-related data for September, where the amount of work was considerably less – from an average of about 10 000 faults fixed per month between May and August to just over 8 000 last month.

The total electricity-related service requests for September is 26 630.

‘Over the past year, we have invested a significant amount of resources to make streetlight repair and maintenance a stronger priority. This included deploying additional teams, prioritising work using age analysis and reallocating work across depot boundaries. We have also deployed the Energy Law Enforcement Safety Team to support operations on the ground by keeping our technicians safe when they are in our communities fixing streetlights, cables, and other infrastructure. This is evident in the data for September showing streetlight-related repairs of just over 8 000 – a reduction in requests. In addition, streetlight burn rates for City areas along major routes are at 83% - thus more than eight out of 10 lights are on – and we aim to improve.

‘Our achievement is testament of the electricity department’s hard work and dedication in eradicating historic backlogs, investment in infrastructure upgrades, and the effectiveness of our campaigns in raising awareness around electricity theft, vandalism, and illegal connections. Damage from these crimes remain a huge threat and we continue to ask our communities to help us protect your power. Additional efforts include active engagement with Eskom to address several operational dependencies that are critical to our ability to remain within our standard response times for resolving public lighting service requests in their areas of supply.

‘Our Energy Safety Team and City Law Enforcement continue to be visible in all hotpot areas, ensuring the repair and maintenance work carried out by our technical teams continues uninterrupted. We are closely monitoring the impact of our interventions and we will continue to roll out more tools in our mission to create safer and brighter communities across Cape Town,' said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Alderman Xanthea Limberg.

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

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office