Pretoria - The City of Tshwane will spend R323 million to eradicate the backlog of homes without electricity in informal settlements.
Making the announcement during his State of the City Address on Tuesday, Tshwane Executive Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa said 76% of households without electricity were people living in informal settlements.
"This year, 6 500 households in informal settlements such as Brazzaville, Itereleng, Letlolo and Rethuseng will benefit from the electrification programme," said the mayor.
To date, 83.79% households within the City of Tshwane have access to basic electricity.
Ramokgopa said the city was also working hard to eradicate the backlog of dysfunctional streetlights.
"[We want] to ensure a turnaround time of 48 hours for the repair of reported faulty lights," he said, adding that interventions such as real time of monitoring of streetlights would be investigated as part of proactive maintenance to ensure 100% visibility at night.
He said an additional 3 010 streetlights and 30 high-mast lamps, to the tune of R30 million, would be installed across the city, including informal settlements.
The city, in partnership with Eskom, has committed an amount of R1.559 billion over a period of five years towards projects to pursuit of the city's goal of universal access.
Ramokgopa said for the rebuilding of Nonyane substation in Winterveldt, they will utilise R43 million, while in Mabopane, Eskom will spend R108 million for the upgrading of Nooitgedacht substation.
A total of R62 million is to be spent in the Ga-Rankuwa area to upgrade Hotel and Midway substations, while a further R352 million will be spent in the Babelegi industrial area.
Ramokgopa said this would assist in resuscitating business operations necessary for job creation and combating unemployment.
The mayor said R376 million will be spent on the former Nokeng Tsa Taemane and Kungwini.
"About 8 005 indigent customers identified by the city in Eskom areas of supply will continue to receive 100kwh per month of Free Basic electricity which is funded by the city in line with the city's policy.
"The city and Eskom have put together a technical task team to ensure that 80 identified highmast lights are connected timeously to improve service delivery and security," he said.
