Some potholes get plants inserted in them, others are named and shamed with spray paint, but a Walmer family has taken shoddy service delivery to the next level by celebrating the fourth anniversary of a broken street light in Fourth Avenue.
With bubbly and cake, the Scholtz family decided to do something different this year to ring in the milestone after the fault was first reported on March 25 2021.
Theo Scholtz, 56, said the light outside their house had not been fixed since it was first reported.
His daughter, Zhana, 21, baked a cake to mark the occasion.
The cheeky gesture, according to Scholtz, was meant to protest against the metro’s inaction but in a nice way.
“We reported it four years back and every year it has not been fixed. We now have a celebration,” he said.
“This year we just thought, as a tongue-in-cheek gesture, let’s bake a cake and go all out.
“We are hinting that it must be fixed but we are not complaining, just doing it nicely.”
Other lights are off further along Fourth Avenue.
But Scholtz said the light in front of his house had not worked in years.
Though the family chooses to see the light side of the situation, two years ago the dark driveway nearly led to a serious incident when Scholtz’s son, Tommie Adlam, 27, and his fiancée, Shana de Villiers, 22, were attacked by criminals.
“He was mugged and his fiancée had to climb over [our] eight-foot wall to try to get away,” he said
“Luckily, he is a big guy, so they both managed to get away safely, but he had to fight off two guys while she tried to come call for help.
“It is frustrating because I have been patient about it, sent numerous emails and did everything possible, but what can you do if no-one seems keen to just come and fix it?”
To spread the cheer of the celebration around, the family decided to donate the cake to a charity, but Scholtz was not sure which one.
Municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya did not respond to questions about the street light by the time of publication.
Councillors have long raised concerns about prolonged street light outages which leave communities in danger as criminals look to take advantage of the dark streets.
In the first half of the 2024/2025 financial year, the municipality repaired only 118 out of 1,135 reported street light faults.
The Herald
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