New plan to enhance street lighting along Jakes Gerwel Drive
17 December 2020
The City of Cape Town’s work along Jakes Gerwel Drive has been severely impacted by the extreme vandalism, safety concerns and illegal electricity connections in that area. At times, it has been necessary to temporarily suspend services like the repair of street lights. Security details have been appointed to accompany staff and contractors to enable them to repair some of the streetlights that are out due to damage from vandalism and illegal connections. Security patrols will also be rolled out to protect infrastructure. The City will assess the effectiveness of these arrangements.
If attacks on staff and electricity and security contractors continue, the City will have no choice but to temporarily suspend streetlight repairs again. The safety of City staff and contractors that are servicing our communities through basic service provision remains of utmost consideration across the metro.
The City is investigating other options on a daily basis to ensure service delivery can continue in the safest possible manner to assist our communities.
‘Vandalism, illegal connections and attacks on City staff and contractors are highly prevalent. Illegal connections are a safety hazard for members of the public and it overloads the infrastructure which causes streetlight and area outages. Mostly, attempts to remove the illegal connections spark violent protests, including damage to electricity and road infrastructure.
‘These attacks have an impact on services and thus on our residents and communities. Contractors are also becoming increasingly reluctant to tender for work in some parts of the metro due to the safety concerns.
‘City management continues to look at the situation on a daily basis and is investigating any possible further options, such as the deployment of enhanced security escorts that are in action already. However, the safety of City staff and contractors that are servicing our communities remains of utmost consideration. Electricity services will not be rendered to some areas until it is deemed safe enough to do so and if law enforcement or security escorts are available,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change, Councillor Phindile Maxiti.
The City continues to conduct patrols in as many of the hotspot areas around the metropole as our resources allow. However, given the varying demands on our staff, it is not possible to have a dedicated presence at all hotspots all of the time. Also, our deployment is based on crime statistics and patterns. It is therefore imperative that motorists report incidents to their nearest South African Police Station, because enforcement responses cannot be activated if the services are not aware that the problem exists.
The South African Police Service remains the lead authority in crime prevention.
Anonymous tip-offs welcomed:
Residents can give anonymous tip offs if they are aware of illegal activity, such as illegal connections or unlawful occupations, that are taking place; that has happened or is still to happen. Please call 112 from a cell phone (toll free) and 107 from a landline or 021 480 7700 for emergencies
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
