Some of the thousands of Durban street lights, which are meant to be on only at night, remain on during the day because the sensors required to switch them off have not been installed.
“The Mercury” has learnt that the eThekwini Municipality has not renewed a contract for the supply of photocell sensors. The contract expired more than three years ago.
Photocell sensors are placed on the street lights. Once natural light is detected by the sensor, the lights switch off and come on again after sunset.
Members of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (Mpac) said they raised the issue with City officials during a meeting recently after noticing that many street lights were on during the day when the municipality is supposed to be saving electricity.
The acting head of electricity in eThekwini, Leshan Moodliar, said he could not speak on the issue relating to contracts and would need to investigate that matter.
However, he said that in areas where there was a high theft rate of cables, the lights were kept on in order to curb the theft as that would keep the cables live.
He said another factor was that the old photocell sensors were programmed to fail in an “on position”, meaning if the sensor is faulty, the light will stay on to give an indication to those working on them that this is an area where they need to go and fix.
An electrician in eThekwini with an understanding of the issue said: “I believe that contract expired about 3-4 years ago. It is not all the lights that are affected. It’s about 20% or so of the lights. But there are close to 300 000 street lights in eThekwini, so we are talking about a significant number.”
Councillors who are members of MPAC said the issue was of serious concern.
IFP councillor Jane Naidoo said that she had raised the issue with City officials during the Mpac meeting.
“I asked them about the street lights that were staying on during the day when the City is supposed to be saving power. The officials from the electricity unit said the contract for photocell sensors expired and there was no new contract in place,” she said.
She added that the electricity officials blamed the officials from the supply chain unit for the delays, whereas those officials pointed the finger back at the electricity unit, saying it was delaying its own procurement process.
ActionSA councillor and Mpac committee member Alan Beesley said the problem needed to be quickly addressed.
“It is totally unacceptable that the tender for photocell sensors for street lights has lapsed. Having street lights on for 24 hours a day is not only financially costing the City dearly but in times of load shedding and trying to save electricity it is simply wrong.”
DA councillor Shontel De Boer said she was aware of the issue.
“It has been years since this started. I am not sure if the contract expired or if it was cancelled. When the department does come out to repair the street lights, they stay on all day and night and only work for a day or two.”
EFF councillor and chairperson of the committee Thami Xuma said the issue came up for discussion as councillors were discussing follow-up matters that had been raised by the office of the auditor-general.
“The issue of street lights was raised and they did say one of their challenges was that there were some contracts that were not in place and they were working on addressing that,” he said.
The Mercury