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Sikhumbuzo Moyo

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BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) is seeking US$1 million to address the issue of poor street lighting amid revelations that about 70 percent of the city’s 11 220 street lights are not working.

The street lights are at the city centre, eastern suburbs, and the main roads as well as high mast (tower lights) which are found mainly in the western suburbs.

In the city centre, there are 1 800 streets lights of which 65 percent or 1 170 are non-functional, in the eastern suburbs, the city has 7 000 street lights with 5 250 of them non-working while along the city’s main roads leading to the city centre, 1 600 of the 2 000 streets lights are non-functionary.

The city has 420 high mast lights with 40 percent or 168 of those lights not working.

Recently, Government directed all local authorities to repair all street lights to ensure safety and trafficability on roads in the country’s cities and towns.

Responding to questions, BCC corporate communications manager Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said council requires a total of US$1 030 879,72 to repair all street lights in the city. 

“The City of Bulawayo faces a number of challenges in ensuring a well-lit city. One of the major causes is due to the high rate of theft and vandalism of the lighting infrastructure,” she said.

“We are currently working on reviewing and improving the lighting standards of the city considering all challenges being faced and we need US$1 030 879,72 to repair all street lights in the city.”

BCC’s engineering services department is responsible for the installation and maintenance of lights within the city. 

Mrs Nesisa Mpofu

 Mrs Mpofu said the types of lamps used in the city centre, main roads and eastern suburbs are 8ft LED lamps, 100W LED lamps (E40) and 105W energy savers (E40) while for the high mast, the city uses 200 – 320W floodlights.

 In an interview, the city’s director of engineering services Engineer Sikhumbuzo Ncube said council doesn’t have funds to repair its street lights.

 “We are also rigorously pursuing the idea of using green finance that will see some of our street lights being solar powered. We budget every year and depending on collections we do as per available resources,” he said.

“At the moment, council does not have the money and we hope other avenues such as green finance which we are vigorously pursuing, will eventually bear fruits.”

According to World Economic Forum, green finance is any structured financial activity – a product or service – that’s been created to ensure a better environmental outcome. It includes an array of loans, debt mechanisms and investments that are used to encourage the development of green projects or minimise the impact on the climate of more regular projects, or a combination of both.

Eng Ncube urged well-wishers to chip in and assist the local authority in repairing street lights.

“Well-wishers in the city are still welcome to make any donations, especially in the neighbourhoods where they live. We have a number of neighbourhoods that have already started to partner with council,” he said.

Bulawayo is set to benefit from a lucrative public lighting deal as part of a Government to Government agreement that will see the national power utility, Zesa and the Rwanda Energy Group (REG) working on a number of energy projects in the country.

The agreement will see the two governments working together in the energy sector which will result in Bulawayo, Mutare, Gweru and Harare benefitting from the infrastructure installed by Zesa.

A technical team from REG visited the country in July 2021 and toured Zesa projects before selecting sites for public lighting projects.

In the execution of the project, Zesa, through its corporation with REG will be responsible for the construction and commissioning of the public lighting infrastructure, application for way leaves permits for Zesa infrastructure and to pre-finance the project through the loan facility from Rwanda.

On its part, BCC will be responsible for the verification of the design and functionality of the proposed system, approval of engineering designs and specifications of the street lights, and reviewing the performance of the public lighting pilot project. 

The project, which will be cascaded to all the country’s cities, towns, and growth points — is a product of President Mnangagwa’s engagement and re-engagement policy, as well as his “Zimbabwe, is Open for Business” mantra.

The project was initiated by President Mnangagwa and his Rwandan counterpart President Paul Kagame.–@skhumoyo2000.