Uitenhage residents left in the dark

Thomas Gamble residents in Uitenhage say their reports about faulty street lights have been ignored.
Thomas Gamble residents in Uitenhage say their reports about faulty street lights have been ignored.
Image: GALLO IMAGES

Frustrated Thomas Gamble residents in Uitenhage say they are at their wits’ end, after their reports about faulty street lights in their area have fallen on deaf ears.

According to Pheasant Street resident Charmaine Phillips, about 90% of the street lights in the area are not working.

“At night the area becomes dark like we are in a village and this poses a risk to us especially elderly residents, some of whom live alone, because there are funny characters that you see during the day and you can only wonder what they get up to at night,” Phillips said.

She said adding to their woes, was a concern about increasing gangsterism in the area and many of the residents did not feel safe.

Just a few weeks back, there was a shooting incident in the street and one of my neighbours picked up a bullet in his yard the next morning

“Just a few weeks back, there was a shooting incident in the street and one of my neighbours picked up a bullet in his yard the next morning.

“We really don’t feel safe. We pay rates and taxes like other citizens, but we are getting no help.”

Uitenhage police spokesperson Sergeant Majola Nkohli confirmed the incident with The Herald at the time and said no arrests had been made but they had opened cases of damage to property and unlawful discharge of a firearm.

Phillips said the streets light had been out for seven months and they had reported the matter to the municipality but were told that there were no bulbs.

Philips’s relative Kitty Phillips, who lives a few houses away, said she was in her 60s and lived alone.

She said there were potholes and water leaks in their area, and motorists struggled at night to avoid potholes and thus put the lives of pedestrians at risk.

“Just in front of our gate is a big pothole and you can’t enter there if you don’t have a torch or some kind of light, so basically residents can’t go anywhere after dark or even open their doors because they don’t know who is outside,” she said.

Municipality spokesperson Mamela Ndamase confirmed that there had been a delay in the procurement of light bulbs but the matter had been resolved and the faulty lights would be prioritised and fixed soon.


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