The Democratic Alliance (DA) has lodged a complaint of public endangerment against the Ga-Segonyana Municipality with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), after the municipality has failed for more than two months to address a dangerous electrical cable caused by a fallen streetlight pole in Kuruman.
In Nerina Street, a streetlight pole collapsed onto a resident’s boundary wall, leaving live electrical cables strewn across the ground, extending into surrounding vegetation and neighbouring property, where they continue to lie across a resident’s driveway.
This is a potentially life-threatening hazard that places residents, and others moving through the area, at serious risk. The municipality’s failure to act with urgency demonstrates a shocking disregard for public safety and basic service delivery obligations.
Despite repeated complaints and attempts to get the municipality to intervene, since 13 March this year, the matter remains unresolved. This reflects the broader collapse of streetlight maintenance across Kuruman.
Streetlights in New Development Area have been burning day and night, since at least March, despite houses not yet even being constructed in the area. At the same time, streetlight poles are being pushed over, while LED lights and cables are routinely stolen and vandalised without any visible intervention or preventative measures from the municipality. A streetlight cable was recently also stripped and stolen in broad daylight, in the Western Side of Van Der Merwe Street North, with no response from municipal authorities.
It is indefensible that old and hazardous streetlights are left unrepaired, placing lives at risk, while new infrastructure is erected in underutilised areas and then abandoned to criminals and vandals through municipal neglect.
During last year’s SAHRC inquiry into the state of Ga-Segonyana, the municipality acknowledged that ongoing service delivery failures are resulting in human rights violations.
The SAHRC further found that, despite various remedial plans and commitments identified, interventions have failed to produce sustained or adequate improvements for residents.
With the municipality required to submit a detailed report to the SAHRC within the next two months on interim service delivery interventions and improvement plans, it is critical that the SAHRC is made fully aware that human rights violations and dangerous service delivery failures are continuing in Ga-Segonyana. We have therefore submitted our concerns regarding streetlight danger and neglect to the SAHRC.
The DA will continue to fight for better services, including working streetlights and safe communities.