City of Joburg and Vodacom partner to keep traffic lights working during load shedding on one of the city’s major roads

By: ANG Reporter

City of Johannesburg member of mayoral committee (MMC) for Transport, councillor Kenny Kunene has facilitated yet another major breakthrough that will ensure that traffic lights are kept on during load shedding.

On Tuesday (4 July) Kunene and top executives of Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) attended the signing ceremony of a service level agreement (SLA) between the JRA and Vodacom South Africa (VSA) that will ensure traffic signals along Boulevard Road in Midrand continue to operate during load shedding.

Kunene said the partnership would leverage electricity sourced from Vodacom’s adjacent buildings to power traffic signals. Through this partnership, Vodacom will provide backup power to the traffic lights at intersections near the Vodacom campus in Midrand, specifically on 13th Road and Vodacom Boulevard (entrance and exit) as well as Lever Road and Vodacom Boulevard.

Kunene said: “The partnership is a testimony that one does not have to be a public servant to do public service and today Vodacom displayed that they are taking public service seriously and that they are prepared to put resources at the disposal of government to assist government in achieving its mandate of service delivery.”

Kunene applauded the signing of the SLA, adding that he was encouraged by widespread interest in the Traffic Signal Backup Power Initiative. “We are inundated with requests from corporates, schools and even NGOs across Johannesburg willing to partner with us in keeping the City’s traffic lights on and essentially, keeping traffic flowing during load shedding.

“This joining of hands today with Vodacom as well as the 39 other Service Level Agreements that are in progress, is a positive boost in growing our local economy as less time in congested traffic means more productive time at the office, the factory, and the schools,” said Kunene.

Vodacom chief executive Sitho Mdlalose said: “As part of our journey to connect people for a better future, we are always exploring ways in which we can work with government to address the many socio-economic ills that face our country. Our participation in this Traffic Signal Backup Power initiative with the JRA aligns with our purpose-led strategy.”

JRA Acting Chief executive officer Zweli Nyati explained: “Class 3 arterials like Lever Road perform an important network function as they provide connections between the various suburban areas located within Midrand and act as important collectors delivering traffic to the major class 2 arterials such as New Road and the N1 freeway. Therefore, JRA is delighted with the formalisation of this partnership with Vodacom which will help ease load shedding traffic congestion along surrounding routes and bring relief to road users of between 2000 and 3000 vehicles travelling in both directions on Lever Road during morning and afternoon peak hour, ”said Nyati.

He added: “From a technical perspective, the partnership involves a JRA redesign of the signal wiring at the intersections in question. This will ensure that electricity from the Vodacom campus kicks in when load shedding occurs.”

In terms of the agreement, the JRA will handle all the infrastructure works outside of the Vodacom campus boundaries, while Vodacom will manage any necessary infrastructure changes within the campus boundaries. Vodacom is the latest to join big corporates in Joburg who have volunteered to offer their generator resources to keep traffic lights on during load shedding to ease traffic congestion on city roads. In April, financial services group and property owner Investec, became the first to partner with the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) and the Sandton Central Management District in a new initiative that would enable traffic lights at major Sandton intersections, including Grayston Drive, Rivonia Road and West Road South to operate during load-shedding using generator power sourced from its adjacent building.