If you think Johannesburg's streets are looking a lot darker these days, your instincts are correct. A Daily Maverick community investigation has uncovered that the repair time for streetlights has doubled in the space of a year. Widespread crime, vandalism, and underspending are leaving frustrated residents in the dark for weeks, and in some cases, years.

Streets across Johannesburg lie in darkness as residents wait weeks for the municipality to repair broken streetlights. And the waiting times are only getting longer. Data shows that repair times for streetlights have more than doubled in the space of a year - from 7.8 days on average to 15.95 days.

The City of Johannesburg has formally acknowledged the issue. In late November 2025, Mayor Dada Morero unveiled a Christmas lights display on De Villiers Street in Johannesburg CBD as a signal of the City's attempt to address its dark streets. Morero argued that the display showed the City's commitment to service delivery and fixing infrastructure that had been left to rot during 10 years of volatile leadership and mismanagement.

"We want to bring a sense of security so that people can feel safe and take their phones out while walking the streets without fear," Morero said. "But we also deal with bringing confidence to our communities [...] especially dealing with the trust deficit between ourselves as a municipality and our communities."

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Nearby, however, the streets were dark - a sign that the City has its work cut out for it. A community investigation by Daily Maverick has uncovered a...