Spotlight on streetlights remains as 12 000 repaired in June
20 July 2025
Over 31 days, from 26 May to 25 June 2025, City energy teams fixed close to 12 000 streetlights, out of a total of 35 900 energy-related requests. The City's Energy Directorate's initiative to improve the turnaround times for streetlight-related service requests continues to show success.
'Vandalism, theft and illegal connections across the metro continue to impact turnaround times as damaged infrastructure often needs to be entirely replaced, which could take many hours or even days in some cases. We have various interventions to reduce the risk of these crimes, but as always, we need the help of our residents to report suspicious activity of their neighbourhood power infrastructure. The impact of inclement weather, especially in winter times, also can be seen in the number of streetlight outages.
'Wet and windy weather often increases the number of service requests and also may slow down turnaround times as it is typically dangerous for our teams to do electrical work in wet and windy weather. Over the period in review, Area East which includes Helderberg, Oostenberg, Bloemhof and Parow had the highest number of streetlight-related outages,' said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Alderman Xanthea Limberg.
The City manages more than 245 000 streetlights across the metro.
Requests attended to per area in the metro - theft and vandalism - remains the biggest driver of streetlight, and power outages:
| East | North | South |
| Helderberg| Oostenberg | Bloemhof | Parow | Vanguard | Mowbray | City | Atlantis | Mitchells Plain | Wynberg | Gugulethu | Muizenberg |
| 4 732 | 3 632 | 3 498 |
Protect Your Power
Report suspicious behaviour to the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre: 021 480 7700
The SAPS remains the lead authority in crime prevention.
*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.
For service requests:
First please log a request online: www.capetown.gov.za/servicerequests
Or:
Phone: 086 0103 089 (Option 3)
Email: power@capetown.gov.za
SMS: 31220
End
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
