Rocklands street lights off for almost four months

Street lights in Rocklands have been off for almost four months.

Residents concerned about their safety in the darkness continued to log service delivery requests with the City of Cape Town between February and June.

By yesterday, Tuesday, some of the street lights had been fixed.

Wayne Siebritz, founding member and co-ordinator of Rocklands Concerned Residents’ Association, said the street lights had been off for months.

This follows weekly community crime meetings to address the increase of crime in the area, since the fatal shooting of former Americans gang boss Mogamat Sadaka Madatt, 55, in the Kapteinsklip squatter camp in Tafelsig on Monday April 1 (“Former gang boss killed in Tafelsig”, Plainsman, April 10).

“Shootings have escalated and the darkness makes it unsafe. We have sent numerous service requests and countless follow ups to the City of Cape Town,” he said.

Valerie Moses, the radio controller for Rocklands neighbourhood watch, recorded seven murders and 19 attempted murders between January and April 21.

She also listed three murders and six people injured at a Rocklands Tavern on May 12 (“Three men killed in Rocklands tavern shooting”, Plainsman May 24).

She records six attempted murders and five murders in April; and six murders and six attempted murders in May.

Mayoral committee member for energy Beverley van Reenen said Mitchell’s Plain has been hit hard by theft, vandalism and illegal connection incidents in recent years.

“Residents might see it as a fault, however, the source of the issue is attempted theft and vandalism,” she said.

The City recorded 223 incidents of electricity vandalism and illegal connections in the first quarter of 2024 at a cost of approximately R6.26 million.

The metro's Area South was the hardest hit with 57% of incidents and the Mitchell’s Plain districts being especially impacted with a massive 94 incidents.

The Plainsman submitted a service request reference number regarding street lights in Caravelle Road, which the City said was repaired but repeatedly vandalised.

Ms Van Reenen said this was a challenge field workers faced as their work is undone shortly afterwards by vandalism, infrastructure damage and theft.

“The infrastructure is targeted leaving multiple streets with dysfunctional street lights which is not easily repairable,” she said.

She said cut cables needed to be jointed and repaired. “The damage that is seen is not the only damage as there is electrical damage to the network that occurs, requiring field tests of the circuits and very often resulting in electrical damage to the network. Often, an entire grid for a neighbourhood must thus be redone and it is not only a single repair at play, for the most part,” she said.

According to the City the growth of theft, vandalism and illegal connections have been exponential in recent years.

This has made an impact on turnaround times to repair or replace infrastructure and restore power.

Repeated cable theft in this area causes City staff to repeatedly return to work in the area to re-instate the stolen cables. The cables are stolen within days of being re-instated and it is not sustainable for the municipality to keep re-instating these cables.

The City has launched its Let’s ACT Protect Your Power campaign urging residents to report suspicious activity and theft, vandalism and illegal connections.

Any suspicious behaviour must be reported to the City’s law enforcement agencies, the City’s Fraud Hotline on 080 011 00 77 or the South African Police Service (SAPS).