Faulty street lights burn ratepayers money

The Annual WWF Earth Hour, or Lights Out grassroots movement, as globally observed recently, to encourage environmental awareness and energy saving practices, sadly skipped a few South African cities and suburbs, where streetlights are kept on constantly, day and night.
With sporadic power outages, South Africans have learnt to adapt to the load-shedding reality, and it has encouraged energy-saving behaviour. However, while citizens are trying to adjust their energy consumption, public entities such as local municipalities, are blatantly wasting energy and taxpayers’ monies, by leaving many streetlights on, during the day.
Recently in Lotus Gardens, West of Pretoria, streetlights were left on for 24 hours a day. Diander Crescent resident, Yaseen Mohammed fumed to the Laudium Sun, “Electricity is being abused in Lotus Gardens. The streetlights are left on day and night. The problem has been carrying on since December and we have complained many times to the council and to the Ward Councillor in the area. It’s as if we don’t have a Councillor here, because nothing is being done. He does not respond to our complaints. I have also personally called the council several times to complain about this blatant waste of electricity, as we need to save electricity. It is honestly so frustrating, every single morning when I take a walk outside and see the streetlights on for absolutely no reason. We also have a problem with theft, as every other week tsotsi’s [thieves] destroy the electricity boxes and cut the cables, and then we do not have electricity. That usually takes days for the council to fix.”
Neighbour, Reg Mooloo, also from Diander Crescent said, “Many Diander Crescent residents and I, are not happy at all about the streetlights being on the entire day. But what can we do about it? We have complained to the council and the Councillor, but they do not seem bothered that electricity is being wasted. We are urging the council to please ensure that the streetlights only come on at night when needed.”
Another Diander Crescent resident, Indrani Perumal said, “I see the streetlights on every day, and my neighbours and I always wish something could be done. The Councillor here seems non-existent. If we complain, they will come and switch the streetlights off permanently. At the end of the day, it’s our money being burnt during the day.”
Another Diander Crescent resident added, “Tossed between energy wastage by the local council, and energy blackouts by Eskom plus a thieving issue with cables has left so many neighbourhoods, including ours, in the dark, giving rise to criminality and safety concerns.”
When asked for comment, Lotus Gardens Councillor, Sam Mashola, told the Laudium Sun, “We know about the streetlights being on 24 hours a day, but we are not sure when it will be sorted out.” Councillor Mashola refused to comment further on the matter.