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There is nothing “world-class” about a city that is falling apart. Whether you are driving in the City of Joburg’s lush suburbs or through the dilapidated CBD, one thing is common – barely any traffic lights.
Some have been knocked down by vehicles during accidents and not repaired, while others have been destroyed by copper thieves.
The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) acknowledged the dismal state of the city’s traffic lights.
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“In the face of such challenges, the entity is exploring ways to discourage the theft of copper cables from the traffic lights, including marking copper cable itself,” said Bertha Peters, the JRA’s spokesperson.
Peters added that, in order to discourage the thieves, the agency had been phasing in aluminium cladding, which makes the cable worthless as soon as it is burnt.
The JRA has spent more than R15 million over the past three years to rebuild and replace vandalised robots. It said that between December 2021 and January last year, about 120 traffic lights had been vandalised or knocked down by reckless motorists or in accidents.
A traffic light costs the agency between R300 000 and R400 000 to replace, Peters said.
The JRA had noted a surge in the vandalism of traffic lights and other infrastructure during load shedding, which has resulted in more road accidents at intersections and delayed trips and, in some cases, even leads to some incidents of road rage among motorists.
Peters said:
Damaged robots and load shedding have also led to a mushrooming of informal traffic controllers – mostly homeless people or beggars – at major intersections across the city. This seems to have happened because the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department seems to no longer send traffic wardens to help keep traffic flowing, especially during peak hours.
