The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Tzaneen has taken a proactive step to assist residents in addressing the ongoing streetlight crisis.
For too long, residents have been forced to report broken streetlights through WhatsApp groups or the municipal call centre, with little evidence of meaningful recordkeeping or a transparent system of prioritisation by the Greater Tzaneen Municipality.
Last week, the DA launched an innovative streetlight reporting platform in Ward 14, Tzaneen.
The system allows residents to simply drop a pin location via WhatsApp to a dedicated number.
Each report is automatically captured into a Google Maps interface, enabling the generation of detailed reports and street-by-street overviews of outages.
This will assist in identifying problem areas and holding the municipality accountable for timely repairs.
Within just a few days of launching in Ward 14, no less than 181 broken streetlights were identified by DA Councillors.
This shows the extent of the problem when accurate and transparent data is collected.
The DA will now expand this oversight initiative to other wards across Tzaneen.
We call on residents who are willing to volunteer in recording broken streetlights to contact any DA ward councillor for assistance.
Together, we can tackle service delivery failures and demand that residents receive the safe and well-lit streets they deserve.