CoCT’s LED streetlight project progresses in Manenberg
The City of Cape Town’s (CoCT) Energy Directorate’s continuous light-emitting diode (LED) streetlight installation and maintenance initiative is making steady progress on public lighting throughout the Metro, including Manenberg.
According to the City, Manenberg has a network of about 200 streetlights for main roads and the City aims to replace older mercury vapour installations with efficient, brighter LEDs over the coming weeks and months.
The Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Alderman Xanthea Limberg, said the metro is focusing on public lighting as part of their plans to increase area safety, complement crime prevention and enhance economic activities in the community.?
“The City’s metro-wide streetlight intervention programme is making significant progress, with more than 14,000 streetlights fixed between 28 August and 8 October 2024,” she said.
She added that the City’s public lighting teams carried out inspections on recently installed LED infrastructure, as well as new installations of the energy-efficient LED fittings and maintained existing lighting infrastructure.?
This forms part of the City’s LED refurbishment public lighting project, which is being rolled out across the Metro. Around R2 million is budgeted for the area, with the majority to be spent in the Manenberg and Hanover Park areas.
Streetlight-related requests and LED lighting in the Metro
The Metro maintains more than 245,000 streetlights. The municipality says streetlight-related requests typically reduce in the summer compared with the winter months, when a lot of storm-related damage can be experienced.
“I salute our dedicated teams who are out there day and night, amid some of the worst weather and safety conditions, as they work not only to implement our streetlight fixing interventions that we put in place to enhance turnaround times but also all the other work to electrical infrastructure.?
“Some of the interventions, such as adding additional contractor services and deploying our Energy Safety Teams, are paying off, but we are still very dependent on our neighbourhoods and communities to help us reduce the impact of theft, vandalism, and illegal connections on our electrical infrastructure. We can only create the safer and brighter communities we want if we work together,” said Limberg.