Durban — The eThekwini Municipality has announced that its street lighting division would bring 30 teams focusing on one area at a time in order to be more effective with the repairs of the street lights as well as system upgrades in the city.
This, on the same day the Daily News reported that the municipality might have spent more than R500 million on a street light contract before terminating it because of fictitious invoices.
The municipality said part of the plan was to be more effective with the repairs of the street lights as well as system upgrades in the city. The street lighting division will be bringing 30 teams, focusing on one area at a time for up to two weeks.
This is supposed to start on Tuesday, October 18 until Friday, October 28.
“We will be focusing on all the roads leading to the CBD, N3, M4, M19 and Umgeni Road, including the CBD itself as well as around the promenade,” the municipality said.
“Thereafter we will be focusing on different areas doing the same.”
The municipality received a lot of mixed reactions from residents:
Nichal Sarawan said: “Good start, please do this in residential areas as well… safety may not be a concern for some but is for those that live in the darkness of eThekwini…”
Rishad Khan said the M4 in the region of Clairwood was bad, the road has potholes too. The N2 lighting is very bad. Also, renew all the cat eyes.
Dee Raghubar said: “Such a joke… Imagine we haven’t had street lights for over a year and now we have to wait (for) more… This page is so far from the reality of being an eThekwini resident that it’s so hard to believe them.”
Thulani TheMrketing-Guy Sosibo said: “Great initiative, let’s hope those team members understand the task and they will be productive… As residents we will come back to this page and applaud the municipality for the job well done, should we start seeing the difference…”
Jodache Ramsamy said: “So people don’t have street lights, we’re sitting with street lights that are on 24/7.”
Trevor Palmer said none of the lights going up to Botha’s Hill in Hillcrest were working and had not been for a long time. This area gets a lot of mist and the cat’s eyes are useless so it can be very dangerous. This needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency, please.
Lucky Marapetsi Ngidi said: “You should be starting in areas where crime is rife like in the townships where people get mugged when they come from work. Proper planning is needed here not to do things in order to be praised.”
Daily News