Pretoria - The EFF has given the City of Tshwane a seven-day ultimatum to install street lights in order to improve residents’ safety in dark streets, road intersections and public parks.
Failure by the municipality to do so, according to regional party leader Obakeng Ramabodu, would see the EFF “have no option but to install solar street lights around the municipality”.
Ramabodu said: “Public lighting is a fundamental responsibility of local government, safe to say it’s incomprehensible a R46.9 billion category A, metropolitan municipality is unable to install street lights to improve the safety of residents and motorists in the country’s capital city.”
The party, he said, was approached by many people who lamented the high rate of criminal activities such as hijackings in the streets, intersections and around the city at night.
“The City of Tshwane should be a place where citizens enjoy a high quality of life with freedom of movement and socialise freely when they feel like it. Recent reports of criminal activities in areas like Fountains Circle, Nelson Mandela, and Pretorius, Wonderpark robots, Transfer in Soshanguve, Morula Complex, Bronkhorstspruit, Dr George Mukhari hospital, and Sunnyside, amongst others, manifest that the coalition government is very naive towards protecting its citizens.”
Additionally, he said, the identified crime hot spots were tourist attraction centres and they were where thousands of schoolchildren and students commute daily to various destinations.
“The DA has been playing in the gallery for so long now, making false rhetoric and boasting themselves as the caring government whose
interests are for all South African citizens. However, their actual work results in noughts and manifests a party that is blowing its own horn and claiming easier victories,” Ramabodu said.
The EFF also wanted the City to install CCTV and avail ongoing police visibility as well as patrols to help fight against violent crimes.
Ramabodu said: “The CCTV system further helps in availing video footage admissible for prosecution purposes in a court of law. Our people, unlike affluent residents of suburban areas, cannot afford privately installed security systems, and therefore they rely on the municipality to guarantee their safety in the communities.”
During the tabling of a budget for the 2023/2024 financial year in May, MMC for Finance Peter Sutton announced an investment of R344.1 million into citywide electricity programmes.
He said the programmes would include electricity for all connection programmes in all regions, communications upgrades, 11kV panel extensions in sub-stations, strengthening the 11kV cable network and overhead network and maintaining secondary sub-stations.
Pretoria News