South Africa

Lights out in Joburg – thousands of traffic signals on the blink amid power cuts, budget blues and vandalism

Vandalised traffic lights on the Voortrekker Road and N12 intersection in Alberton. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

27 Jan 2025

Johannesburg is the G20 host city, but its traffic light system has broken down in 2025 – accelerating its de-modernisation.

A community investigation by Daily Maverick and information from the authorities show that thousands of traffic lights are down and that the intersections on most major roads that ferry people and goods across what is still the country’s commercial capital are on the blink.

In a post with 190,000 impressions and 3,466 engagements, Johannesburg residents helped map (above) the breakdown to expose its extent. This first social investigation experiment has revealed the extent to which the major intersections across the city, its vital commuter and economic nerve, are down causing frustration to drivers, commuters and economic actors.

allandale old johannes A points controller directs traffic on Allandale and Old Johannesburg roads in Midrand. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

It’s slowing the economy by causing bottlenecks and is one among several system breakdowns that are rapidly making Johannesburg the country’s second city to a surging Cape Town.

The Johannesburg Roads Agency falls under the Patriotic Alliance whose political head is the party’s deputy leader Kenny Kunene. He promised great shakes when he took over as Transport MMC in 2023. For years the traffic-light network has steadily declined as cadre deployment, power cuts, copper theft and a budget crowded out by staff and debt costs, as well as declining revenues, have laid waste to the road network.

The above list developed by readers, which runs over 24 pages on the app and which you can scroll through, shows that major intersections and smaller junctions across the city are out.

The community showed chronic problems on major roads that carry the most traffic: Beyers Naudé Drive, in Bruma, in Bryanston, in Douglasdale, all of Fourways, the Golden Highway, Gordon Road, Grayston Drive, Hendrik Potgieter Road, Jan Smuts Avenue, Klipriviersberg Road, Kyalami Corner, Louis Botha Avenue, Main Reef Road, Main Road, Malibongwe Drive, Summit Road in Midrand, Modderfontein Road, Oxford Road, Winnie Mandela Drive, Witkoppen Road and Woodmead Drive. These roads do not have traffic lights and often do not have street lights either.

Pointsmen control traffic on Winnie Mandela Drive in Fourways. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

The map and list show a general system failure, the same as for water and power in the city. Johannesburg’s roads are run by the JRA, the Gauteng government (responsible for an estimated 60% of the traffic lights at intersections that do not work, according to the city) and some by the SA National Roads Agency. It’s a complex and interlocking system of governance which makes tracing accountability difficult.

So, what’s happened?

While load shedding by Eskom has ended, power cuts in Johannesburg have not. “The lack of power supply contributes to 31% of the traffic lights being out at any given time. Traffic lights, like any other energy-driven component, require power supply to operate as intended,” says the JRA head of mobility, Sipho Nhlapo.

Pointsmen control traffic on Winnie Mandela Drive in Fourways. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

It’s better than it was during load shedding, he says, adding that 51% of lights were out at any given time at the height of rotational power cuts. Because City Power has thousands of fault reports at any time, the traffic light fixes depend on the electricity utility’s resolution rate which is getting longer as the city grid enters its end-of-life.

Across Johannesburg on smaller and major junctions, you will see traffic lights lying prone. Syndicates are chopping down traffic lights to steal what they can. The JRA has more than 360 cases opened for vandalism and theft of infrastructure.

“Vandalism is at different levels at different intersections from a few poles being cut to take cables to all intersections being removed. Certain intersections with mild vandalism still operate but still require an entire fix for efficiency,” says Nhlapo.

Many readers told us about intersections that are out for months. “Those that are vandalised tend to take far longer to be repaired because they are treated as a criminal activity and require the police for insurance purposes,” he says, adding that the city will need R70-million to fix all the vandalised intersections. Johannesburg is debt-funded with financial problems so big the city fleet was grounded in December.

broking traffic lights A man rests on a broken traffic light pole on the Voortrekker Road and N12 intersection in Alberton. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

Traffic lights yield very little cable any longer after the JRA reduced copper by two-thirds in its newer lights, but the thieves still come at them. Six copper thieves got sentences from eight to 22 years in 2024, says Nhlapo.

The JRA is responsible for 2023 intersections with 16,000 poles, 100,000 LED bulbs and 2023 controller boxes.

“All of these have to work together without fail, all the time,” says Nhlapo.

That level of efficiency is too much for Johannesburg’s phase of decline and preponderance of crime. Sources say a tender for parts has not been awarded despite going out to market three years ago.

Vandalised traffic lights on the Voortrekker Road and N12 intersection in Alberton. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

Johannesburg does have smart traffic lights: 80% of the network is remotely monitored. “The remote controllers can report more than 90% of the faults to our teams even before the community gets to know about it (and) this assists with speedy responses by our teams.”

Councillors and communities do report that the JRA teams work as fast as they can and Nhlapo is a mobility champion. He says that the part of the traffic light network controlled by the city has an up-time of 80% but that the power cuts and vandalism are the true problems.

When Daily Maverick asked Johannesburg residents to respond to outages, many said that it would be easier to name the intersections with working lights. In other words, the perception is that the exception is working lights; the norm is dysfunction.

“If most are not functioning due to theft and power cuts, this cannot be construed as service delivery failure from the JRA,” Nhlapo said. He uses an analogy, saying that if you don’t have power at home, you don’t blame the brands who supply your appliances. “You don’t blame the brands and complain the appliances are not working during a power outage.”

Many residents said the city should give up on traffic lights and replace these with stop-go or roundabout intersections as is happening in some areas. “This is not an outright option – a signalised intersection improves mobility. Navigating a four-way stop intersection slows the traffic.”

Johannesburg was not among the top 10 most congested cities in the world, according to Tom Tom and Inrix studies, said Nhlapo. DM

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So, what’s happened?