The Cape Navigator

CAPE TOWN – Plumstead residents are expressing growing fears over rising incidents of crime, allegedly exacerbated by extended streetlight outages in the area. A frustrated resident took to social media to warn neighbours, stating: “Two young males were threatened with a gun by individuals walking in Leonard Street… Street lights have been out in Rule and Leonard Street for more than three weeks, calls logged with COCT but no feedback.”

S.R.U Security, a local security company, shared the resident’s post and highlighted two successful apprehensions they made: “What a kickstart to the first Monday of the week for S.R.U Security… our SRU Rapid response and Tactical response managed to successfully apprehend the suspect minutes later.” They later added, “…we immediately dispatched as back up was requested, the suspect was positively identified and immediately apprehended by our SRU Rapid and tactical unit…”

The City of Cape Town (CoCT) acknowledged the problem when contacted by The Cape Navigator: “The City is urgently attending to faulty streetlights across the city… The majority of streetlight-related faults are caused by vandalism and theft of infrastructure… We apologise for any inconvenience caused while we attend to all outstanding requests.”

CoCT urges residents to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity: “We are urging residents to please assist us by being our eyes and ears and to report all suspicious activities at or near electricity infrastructure to the City’s law enforcement agencies or the City’s Fraud Hotline, 0800 1100 77, or to the SAPS.”