Why so many of Cape Town's street lights don't work
Between 26 May and 25 June 2025, the City's energy teams repaired nearly 12 000 faulty street lights. In spite of this effort, it represents only a portion of the 35 900 energy-related service requests that were logged during that period.
According to the City of Cape Town, vandalism, cable theft, and illegal electricity connections are the leading causes of widespread street light failures across the metro.
These problems are particularly costly, often requiring full replacements of damaged infrastructure – an intensive process that can take several hours or even days.
'We have various interventions to reduce the risk of these crimes, but as always, we need the help of our residents to report suspicious activity of their neighbourhood power infrastructure,' said the City's Mayco Member for Energy, Xanthea Limberg.
The City's Energy Directorate also pointed to severe winter weather as a contributing factor. Persistent storms and intense rainfall throughout June contributed to a rise in reported outages.
'Wet and windy weather often increases the number of service requests,' added Limberg.
'It also slows down turnaround times as it is typically dangerous for our teams to do electrical work in those conditions.'
The worst-hit area during this reporting period was Area East – which includes Helderberg, Oostenberg, Bloemhof, and Parow.
Energy-related requests attended to in the Cape Town metro were as follows: EAST NORTH SOUTH Helderberg, Oostenberg, Bloemhof, Parow Vanguard, Mowbray, City, Atlantis Mitchells Plain, Wynberg, Gugulethu, Muizenberg 4 732 3 632 3 498
The City of Cape Town has asked residents to report suspicious behaviour to the City's Public Emergency Communication Centre (021 480 7700), and to remember that the SAPS remains the lead authority in crime prevention.
For service requests, residents should first log a request online or phone 086 0103 089 (Option 3). Alternatively, email power@capetown.gov.za.
Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1.
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