Cape Town energy teams attended to 9,572 streetlight service requests in one month as the City continues investing billions in electricity infrastructure and tackling vandalism.
The City of Cape Town said the streetlight requests were attended to between 26 June and 25 July 2026 and formed part of 32,795 overall electricity service requests handled during the period.
This represents a decline from the previous reporting period between May and June, when teams attended to 40,178 electricity service requests, including 15,286 relating to streetlights.
According to the City, the decrease followed an earlier spike in requests caused by severe storm conditions.
Area East, which includes Helderberg, Oostenberg, Bloemhof and Parow, recorded the highest number of streetlight requests attended to, at 4,092.
Area South, covering Mitchells Plain, Wynberg, Gugulethu and Muizenberg, followed with 3,268 requests, while Area North, including Vanguard, Mowbray, City and Atlantis, recorded 2,171.
R1 Billion For Streetlights
The repairs form part of a much larger programme to strengthen Cape Town’s electricity infrastructure.
The City’s Energy Directorate is investing more than R6 billion in electricity grid upgrades and clean-energy procurement as Cape Town prepares its infrastructure for what it describes as a more dynamic and decentralised energy future.
Within that programme, R1 billion is being invested in streetlights over the next three years, including approximately R165 million earmarked to replace ageing streetlights with more energy-efficient LED technology.
Mayoral Committee Member for Energy Alderman Xanthea Limberg said teams continue to respond to electricity faults while the City’s infrastructure investment and upgrade programme proceeds.
“Our teams continue to work incredibly hard to attend to all electricity service requests across all areas of the city while the investment and upgrades of our electricity infrastructure is ongoing,” Limberg said.
The investment is intended not only to address existing faults but to improve the resilience and efficiency of electricity infrastructure over the longer term.
Vandalism Remains Major Challenge
The City identified theft and vandalism as the biggest drivers of streetlight and power outages.
Through its Protect Your Power campaign, Cape Town is attempting to reduce damage caused by vandalism, infrastructure theft and illegal electricity connections.
Energy Safety Teams and City Law Enforcement are being deployed in hotspot areas, while anti-theft and vandalism technologies are also being introduced.
The City is additionally replacing some copper infrastructure with equipment carrying a lower street value in an attempt to make electricity infrastructure less attractive to thieves.
Limberg said community reporting remains important because much of Cape Town’s electrical infrastructure is located within residential communities and close to private properties.
“Swift reporting will enable the City to act with speed to prevent extensive damage in our communities,” she said.
Residents who notice suspicious activity around electricity infrastructure are therefore being encouraged to report it quickly.
The City’s figures relate to streetlight service requests closed during the reporting period and can include previously logged requests. New and historic requests are continually added to the system, meaning the data remains dynamic.
For Cape Town, the combination of ongoing repairs, infrastructure upgrades, LED replacement and measures against theft represents an attempt to address both the immediate problem of broken streetlights and the longer-term resilience of the city’s electricity network.
