The City of Cape Town’s Energy Directorate and Eskom Distribution led a joint service delivery intervention in Dunoon. The area is entirely Eskom supplied, with City teams accelerating plans to repair faulty, encroached, and vandalised high mast lights, while Eskom teams were also on site working on their infrastructure, attending to customer queries as well as service requests.
The City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Alderman Xanthea Limberg, led a joint City Energy and Eskom intervention in Dunoon, attending to electricity-related service requests, including the repair and maintenance of public lighting infrastructure in the area. The scale of servitude encroachments and illegal electricity connections in Dunoon have made it nearly impossible for teams to promptly repair and maintain high masts in most cases.
‘City Energy and Eskom’s joint efforts in Dunoon are making significant progress. We are attending to faulty public lighting infrastructure, including several high mast lights, some of which could not be fixed for extended periods due to the prevalence of servitude encroachments that limit our ability to access sites to carry out repair and maintenance work. On site work has begun, with nine of the 14 high masts now fully operational, significantly boosting public lighting in the area. The initial focus is on infrastructure which isn’t severely encroached and where repairs do not require dependencies. The City has a maintenance budget of R4,9 million for the district, which includes Dunoon for the current financial year, underscoring our commitment to keeping the lights on all communities across our City.
‘The work currently under way includes heavy machinery and advanced technical teams from both the City and Eskom working in coordination to repair high mast lights in the area and attend to public service requests. In one of our more urgent projects, City Energy and Informal Settlement Management teams and contractors have conducted technical assessments, mapping out crane access plans and exploring engineering solutions to attend to encroached infrastructure. We are closely monitoring this process to ensure a prompt resolution to lighting and broader electricity services needs in this community.
‘Through the City’s coordinated multi-departmental and Eskom work, we ultimately aim to see Dunoon well-lit and safer. We can only achieve this with the help of our communities, who can help us protect their power by reporting acts of infrastructure criminality and encroachment of City as well as Eskom electricity servitudes to the South African Police Service and the City’s Law Enforcement. Through our dedicated Energy Safety Teams and several other infrastructure protection initiatives, the City is doing its part to keep Cape Town lights burning, said Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Alderman Xanthea Limberg.’
Dunoon falls within an Eskom supply area, however, the City’s public lighting responsibilities cover the entire Cape Town metropole jurisdiction. The City is conducting high mast lighting repairs across the metro, including in areas such as Bishop Lavis and Khayelitsha. Residents are encouraged to report any faulty or vandalised infrastructure, as well as any suspicious activity near public lighting.
The City has also launched Protect Your Power, a first of a kind campaign, which highlights the massive impact of vandalism, theft and illegal connections which leave our communities, neighbourhoods, and roadways in the dark. The City is calling on all residents to help us Protect Your Power and build safer, brighter communities by reporting any suspicious activity anonymously to the City’s PECC. The SAPS remains the lead authority in crime prevention.
Let’s ACT: Protect Your Power
Report suspicious behaviour to the City’s PECC: 021 480 7700
Report illegal scrap yards to the ‘Copperheads’: 0800 222 771 (toll free, 24/7, anonymous tip-offs)
