Dark streets can quickly become a safety concern for residents, which is why the City of Cape Town says restoring streetlights remains a key priority as it continues to recover from severe weather that hit the metro earlier this year, Cape {town} Etc reports.
Between 26 May and 25 June 2026, City Energy teams closed 15 286 streetlight-related service requests, while responding to more than 40 000 energy service requests overall. The latest figures reflect ongoing efforts to reduce the maintenance backlog created after the damaging four-day storm in May.
Storm recovery keeps repair teams busy
According to the City, the number of streetlight requests handled increased from 13 074 in the previous reporting period to 15 286, highlighting the scale of the repair work currently underway.
The busiest workload was recorded in Area East, which includes Helderberg, Oostenberg, Bloemhof and Parow, where teams attended to 6 351 streetlight-related requests.
Area South, covering Mitchells Plain, Wynberg, Gugulethu and Muizenberg, followed with 5 317 completed requests, while Area North, including Vanguard, Mowbray, the City area and Atlantis, accounted for 3 560.
While many residents continue to report faulty streetlights through community groups and neighbourhood social media pages, reliable public lighting remains an important issue for road safety, pedestrians and crime prevention across Cape Town.
Theft and vandalism continue to impact infrastructure
The City says vandalism, cable theft and damage to electrical infrastructure remain among the biggest reasons for recurring streetlight failures and power interruptions.
To help protect the network, officials are continuing with the Protect Your Power campaign, alongside increased visibility from Energy Safety teams and City Law Enforcement in identified hotspot areas.
The municipality is also replacing some infrastructure with lower street-value materials to make equipment less attractive to thieves, while rolling out additional anti-theft technology.
Billions set aside for electricity and lighting upgrades
Beyond day-to-day maintenance, the City says it is investing more than R4 billion through its medium-term capital programme to strengthen Cape Town’s electricity distribution network.
An additional R1 billion has also been allocated over the next three years for streetlight maintenance, network expansion and upgrades, including the installation of more energy-efficient LED streetlights.
Mayoral Committee Member for Energy Xanthea Limberg said the City appreciates residents’ patience while repairs continue and encouraged communities to report suspicious activity around electricity infrastructure to help reduce vandalism and theft.
The City has reminded residents that reporting damaged infrastructure and suspicious behaviour as quickly as possible can help prevent longer outages and more extensive damage.
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Picture: Anthony Tuil / Unsplash
