Johannesburg’s traffic lights are crumbling, leaving streets in chaos

Key topics:

• Johannesburg traffic lights failing due to vandalism, outages, and poor upkeep

• Power issues and weak infrastructure worsen congestion citywide

• Homeless people and OUTsurance pointsmen now direct traffic at broken lights

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By Staff Writer

Johannesburg’s traffic light system is collapsing, with deteriorating infrastructure, vandalism, and frequent outages.

This is a big frustration to residents which have to sit in traffic for hours because the municipality is not doing its own work.

It is also somewhat ironic, as Johannesburg pioneered traffic lights in South Africa in the 1920s, signalling a change in urban traffic management in South Africa.

Before that, intersections in Johannesburg were managed manually by traffic officers, who used whistles and hand signals to direct vehicles.

With the rise in car ownership, Johannesburg had to find a more efficient system to improve traffic flows.

The city used the same system as those in the United Kingdom and the United States, with red, orange, and green signals to regulate the traffic flow.

These early traffic lights were revolutionary and praised for reducing confusion and making it easier for motorists and pedestrians to navigate street crossings.

Fast forward 100 years, and Johannesburg motorists are once again relying on hand signals to direct vehicles at intersections.

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However, this time around, it is not managed by traffic officers. It is mostly homeless people and beggars doing the directing.

For the privileged few, an OUTsurance pointsman may man the intersection where the traffic lights are not working.

The OUTsurance Pointsmen Project was launched in 2005 to alleviate traffic congestion and contribute towards road safety.

However, there are so many broken traffic lights across Johannesburg that OUTsurance pointsmen can only service the busiest intersections.

It is also telling that this project exists at all. The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police (JMPD) should be doing this work.

However, while the green OUTsurance pointsmen are on duty daily, it is a rarity to see a Johannesburg Metropolitan Police officer directing traffic.

Johannesburg’s traffic light system collapsing

Earlier this year, the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) stated that the city requires R70 million to repair its malfunctioning and stolen traffic lights.

The JRA’s acting head of mobility and freight, Sipho Nhlapo, said that around 396 traffic lights in the city were vandalised.

While some of the vandalised traffic lights were still working, others were completely out of order.

“If you had to go to many of the sites, you won’t find a pole, you won’t find cable, you won’t find anything, and we need to rebuild those from scratch,” he said.

He added that, at any given time, around 25% of Joburg’s intersections are not working due to power problems, which stem from sources such as Eskom and City Power.

In addition, many of Joburg CBD’s intersections were done many years ago with a very weak form of paper insulation.

This means that they are very vulnerable to heavy rain, which South Africa has experienced a lot of during the 2024/25 Summer season.

This issue has worsened over the last few years, as the installation of fibre cables has resulted in road surfaces being weaker than they were before.

He estimated that around 488 traffic lights are not working at any point, which increases to close to 600 when including the ‘functioning’ vandalised poles.

Apart from vandalised traffic lights, power problems are also a growing issue in the City of Johannesburg.

Last month, the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) said many recurring traffic light problems are power-related.

“Eskom provides the power in many cases, and the Gauteng Department of Transport is in communication with Eskom to resolve the issues as they occur,” it said.

MyBroadband visited Johannesburg to assess the situation and found that a large number of traffic lights were out of order.

At some intersections, beggars and homeless people directed traffic. It felt like an unsafe situation where the metro police should step in.

We observed problems throughout the city, in both affluent and impoverished areas. Traffic lights were down everywhere.

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It increased traffic congestion to such a degree that driving around in Johannesburg became unpleasant.

Although there are initiatives to resolve the traffic light problems across the city, they have a long way to go to ensure all traffic lights are working.

Photos of Johannesburg’s collapsing traffic lights

This article was first published by MyBroadband and is republished with permission