Cape Town streetlight audit reveals over 1,000 outages
Over 1,000 streetlights have blown out in Cape Town
Image: FILE
More than 1,000 streetlights along Cape Town’s main roads have gone dark, leaving drivers and pedestrians to navigate in near pitch-black conditions.
And with so many streets unlit, residents said they felt anxious and unsafe at night, fearing muggings, break-ins or even murder as darkness fell over their neighbourhoods.
Some had even stopped walking home after sunset altogether, saying the city’s streets had become “too dangerous to trust after dark".
The scale of the problem was laid bare in a performance audit that was recently presented to the city’s energy committee, revealing widespread outages across key routes and suburbs.
The report, seen by IOL, shone a light on the state of streetlighting across Cape Town. The metro was responsible for 245,000 streetlights, regardless of whether they were in a city or an Eskom-supplied area.
Out of 5,047 streetlights on major routes and highmasts, 1,046 were not working as of August, the audit found.
This gave a burning rate of 83% in city-supplied areas, below the target of 90%. This meant just over eight out of every 10 streetlights were on.
City-supplied areas performed better than Eskom areas but still fell short of targets.
The metro’s energy political head Xanthea Limberg said the burn rate was affected by several factors.
These included vehicle collision damage, theft, vandalism and illegal connections, which according to her were leading causes, along with Eskom dependencies.
And often, within hours of fixing infrastructure, it was damaged again by the very same criminal acts.
"Damage to infrastructure because of criminality is serious as it impacts repair turnaround times as typically damaged poles or kiosks or transformers must be replaced, or the damage impacts entire grids," she told IOL in response.
"The ongoing vandalism, illegal connections and theft of streetlight infrastructure undermine our efforts to improve public safety and it places a significant burden on our resources and a lot of focus has gone into rolling out interventions to curb this."
From July 2024 to April 2025, nearly R62m had been spent on electricity maintenance and replacement.
The Central Business District was the only area to meet the 90% target, with 90.18% of its 1,507 lights working.
Routes like Table Bay Boulevard, Philip Kgosana Drive, Nelson Mandela Boulevard, Strand Street and highmasts along Helen Suzman Boulevard mostly remained lit, though 148 lights were still out.
Other city-supplied areas struggled.
Bellville and Durbanville had 269 of 1,642 lights out, a burning rate of 83.62%.
Key routes affected included Durban Road, Eversdal Road, De Bron Road, Racecourse Road, Wellington Road, Peter Barlow, Robert Sobukwe North-South and Langeberg Road.
Maintenance, including pole replacements on Sacks Circle, was scheduled, the report, which was submitted in September, said.
The Mitchell’s Plain and Gugulethu area had 236 of 764 lights out, giving a burning rate of 69.11%.
Streets affected included Eisleben Drive, Govan Mbeki Street, Steve Biko Drive and Klipfontein Road. Road construction along Govan Mbeki Street contributed to the outages.
Eskom-supplied areas performed worse.
Delft and Belhar had 354 of 952 lights out, a burning rate of 62.82%.
Streets affected included Delft Main Road, Symphony Way, Wesbank Main Road, Erica Drive, Belhar Drive and Stellenbosch Arterial, where a suspected cable fault had been identified.
Highmast lighting in Nomzamo also faced problems, with 39 of 182 lights out, giving a burning rate of 78.57%.
Vandalism caused many of the outages, and some masts required cranes for repairs.
Overall, city-supplied routes averaged 83.31% working lights, while Eskom-supplied areas averaged only 62.82%.
The report pointed to technical faults, vandalism and road construction as main causes. Maintenance and repairs were planned to restore full lighting and improve safety across the city’s major routes.
Limberg said the city was investing R75.5m in its street and public lighting capital programme in the current financial year alone.
"The growing investment in streetlighting infrastructure is a core priority for us," she said.
"The city has also deployed additional teams, prioritising work using age analysis and reallocating work across depot boundaries.
"We have a dedicated energy law enforcement safety team to support operations on the ground by keeping our technicians safe when they are in our communities fixing streetlights, cables and other infrastructure."
Limberg said her department was also in active engagement with Eskom to address several operational dependencies.
She also said there was significant investment in public lighting infrastructure in Eskom-supplied areas.
"Last month for example, the city announced a R10m high mast light refurbishment programme in Khayelitsha alone.
"Other areas were also prioritised within our capital expenditure programmes."
Sandra Dickson, founder of lobby group STOP COCT, said: "It puts in question once again the 'best run city' narrative.
"In a first world excellently run city, one would expect streetlights to be repaired within hours but this seem not to be the case here ... one would also expect the mayor to provide answers to this."
Anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee said criminals loved the dark.
"Street lights not working makes it easier for them," he said.
"In many areas we have seen crime going up because of non functional street lights. Local authorities must ensure that they prioritise this issue.
"Theft of motor vehicles, theft out of motor vehicles, burglaries and robberies went up during load shedding."
City of Cape Town Freedom Front Plus PR councillor Emre Uygun said he was alarmed by the numerous reports of broken street lights in Bellville.
"Given Bellville's reputation as a crime hotspot, the lack of proper street lighting is hindering the efforts of law enforcement agencies and neighbourhood watches to combat crime during patrols.
"Today [Tuesday] alone, I have received multiple complaints from residents about street lights not working.
"I urge the city's energy directorate to take immediate and decisive action to address this issue, ensuring our streets are safe and well-lit for all residents and law enforcement personnel, especially for the upcoming festive season where we are expecting a significant increase in crime."
Danie van der Westhuizen, of Bellville, said: "Streetlights are very important; they’re almost like having a policeman every 100 metres.
"The first thing criminals do when they want to break in is make sure it’s dark and if they can, they try to break the lights.
"Home security cameras also work much better at night when the streetlights are functioning."
Durbanville resident Tarryn Kotze said driving home has become really stressful with so many streetlights out.
"As a woman, it’s hard to see in the dark and I constantly worry about other cars or even criminals I can’t spot until it’s too late. It feels unsafe just getting from one place to another and every night I find myself tensing up ... it really is frustrating."
Another resident Janine West said she was too afraid to walk to a corner shop at night.
Limberg said her department carried out important and necessary electricity maintenance and replacement to vandalised and stolen infrastructure on a daily basis.
"In September alone, our energy teams have responded to over 8,000 streetlight related service requests.
"We urge our residents to be alert around the power infrastructure in their communities and help us by reporting criminal activity.
"We’re calling on residents to help us Protect Your Power and build safer, brighter communities by reporting any suspicious activity anonymously to 021-480-7700."
IOL News