Areas left in the dark for weeks
Bay fails in lighting streets
It took the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s electricity department on average 25 days to fix street lights in June, from the time it received complaints from the public.
This is due to staff shortages and a lack of proper equipment to do the job, it was revealed on Friday.
The department currently has about 576 vacancies in its staff organogram of 1 114 positions.
The vacancies have also resulted in the department failing to reach its target of installing 160 new street lights.
By the end of June, the department had only installed 127 new lights.
In addition, about 443 lights were repaired during the 201718 financial year.
This was detailed in a report tabled at the infrastructure, engineering and energy committee on Friday.
Deputy director for distribution Martin Basson said the department’s shortcomings were further exacerbated by the condition of the city’s equipment, which was in a state of disrepair.
“One of the challenges is that our trucks are very old and sometimes when trucks are bought, the crane is old.
“We are also short staffed and vandalism is also a big problem.”
Basson said he hoped the turnaround time would improve as the city intended to appoint contractors by the end of September.
Some councillors in the committee accused officials of neglecting the townships .
DA councillor Pieter Hermaans said the committee needed to intervene urgently.
“This street-lights matter is a long-standing matter. The parks and streets are dark. We who serve on this standing committee ask what the municipality is doing.
“The lights are repaired today, but two days later they are off again. I ask myself what is going on? Are we being sabotaged? What is happening here? We need to deal with this as a committee because I know in my area [Helenvale] it is dark,” Hermaans said.
“We as councillors are not being listened to and this speaks to the narrative that the townships are dark,” Hermaans said.
EFF councillor Lukhanyo Mrara said the turnaround time was a cause for concern.
“I have received reports from residents in Motherwell who claimed that a high-mast light has been faulty for the past six years. I want to know how long it takes to fix a highmast light.”
Mrara added there were street lights in the area that needed to be repaired.
DA councillor Lungiswa Mlungwana said the city’ s inability to repair street lights could be likened to the metro failing to combat water leaks.
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