{"id":849681,"date":"2026-02-03T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=849681"},"modified":"2026-02-03T13:40:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:40:37","slug":"traffic-lights-vandalised-so-often-in-south-africa-they-are-replaced-by-stop-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/849681\/traffic-lights-vandalised-so-often-in-south-africa-they-are-replaced-by-stop-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Traffic lights vandalised so often in South Africa they are replaced by stop signs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In several South African metros, rampant vandalism and cable theft have forced municipalities to replace traffic lights with stop signs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, Freedom Front Plus councillor Wesley Jacobs revealed that traffic lights have been decommissioned in Centurion, Gauteng.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told residents that the traffic signals at the three-way intersection of Botha and Hoffmeyer streets have been decommissioned due to ongoing vandalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has become too costly to keep repairing these traffic signals due to the constant theft of city infrastructure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has led to the traffic signal intersection being downgraded and decommissioned to a 3-way stop intersection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replacing traffic lights with a stop street typically leads to increased traffic and frustration among motorists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He urged residents in the area to comply with the Road Traffic Act and to stop at the provided stop signal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not an isolated event. Many major metros have switched from traffic lights to stop streets due to theft and vandalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Ekurhuleni had ceased repairs at certain high-risk intersections due to similar problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They spent roughly R120 million in a single financial year on repairs before deciding to de-warrant specific signals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It explained that the high cost of repairs, which arose from vehicle accidents, theft, and vandalism, has become unsustainable<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has led to the decision to install stop signs rather than new traffic signals in affected areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough the installation of the stop signs is a temporary measure, some intersections may have the stop signs permanently,\u201d the city said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) faced similar challenges, with over 500 intersections vandalised over a four-year period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One intersection has been vandalised 14 times, leading the city to eventually replace the lights with stop signs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each time it costs around R300,000 to replace the vandalised traffic lights with new ones, which have become prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Tshwane has also bemoaned hotspots where controllers and transformers are stolen frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This happened so often that these traffic lights are essentially becoming four-way stops for months at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city has publicly weighed the cost-benefit of permanent stop signs for rural or remote intersections that lack 24-hour surveillance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replacing traffic lights with stop signs has a direct impact on motorists, which includes increased traffic and higher crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents have raised concerns that stop signs lead to more smash-and-grab crimes and reckless driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vandalised traffic lights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In several South African metros, rampant vandalism and cable theft have forced municipalities to replace traffic lights with stop signs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":849683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[24662,10431,24661],"class_list":["post-849681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-stop-streets","tag-traffic-lights","tag-wesley-jacobs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849681"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":849705,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849681\/revisions\/849705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}