Pretoria - A resident of Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, who was fed-up with the pitch-black streets in his area due to non-functioning street lights, scored a legal victory over the local municipality when the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, ordered it to repair several non-functioning street lights.
Carlo Messina turned to the courts after several unsuccessful requests to the city to fix the street lights.
Judge Allyson Crutchfield ordered the City to fix the street lights within a reasonable time, which she regarded to be three months.
But Messina told the Pretoria News that the faulty street lights have not yet been fixed. He expressed his hope that this would be done in the stipulated time set by the court.
If the City did not adhere to the court order, he would be compelled to return to court for a contempt of court order against the mayor. But Messina said he hoped this would not be necessary.
He brought the application in his capacity as a resident and ratepayer in the City of Ekurhuleni. It was argued that the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act requires municipalities to ensure that all members of the local community have access to basic municipal services.
He initially launched an urgent application in July last year but this was turned down as the court found that it was unreasonable to order the municipality to repair the street lights immediately. Messina again turned to the courts nine months later and was successful.
Messina, who is also an attorney, stated in his court papers that he first noticed in May last year that the majority of street lights in his area were out.
He reported this to the municipality and only a few street lamps were repaired. He said there are, however, still long stretches of road where not a single street light as working. This, Messina said, made the area prone to criminal activities and put residents at risk.
He made several attempts to report the non-functioning street lights but nothing was done. Messina then turned to the court to enforce his rights as a ratepayer.
The municipality denied that he was entitled to an order that they had to repair the street lights. They relied on two earlier judgments, where the court held that it was not reasonable for a citizen to expect that services such as roads and pavements and by extrapolation, street lights, be maintained in pristine condition at all times.
Apart from arguing that they do not have a legal duty to maintain street lights, the municipality also cited budget constraints, items damaged or stolen including cables, damage to the street lamp poles and the availability of replacement items.
Judge Crutchfield said: “The respondent has a legal duty to maintain the street lamps in a reasonably functional state and should be ordered to repair the dysfunctional street lights on the roads referred to in the order to be granted hereunder, within three months from the date of this order.”
Pretoria News