Budget cuts and load-shedding have put an end to municipal Christmas lights in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. But Buffalo City in the Eastern Cape is going big — spending a record R5.11m on festive season lights this year.
Its budget exceeds that of South Africa’s biggest tourism hub, Cape Town, which is spending R3m on lights, as it did last year.
“The lights are an important tourism attraction that pull visitors from all over the country and beyond to come and inject a much-needed financial boost for our city,” said Buffalo City spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya. “We are renowned as a city that has one of the best Christmas lights decorations in the country, and every year we strive for new attractions to create amazing designs.”
[Turning off the Christmas lights] was a strategic decision informed by prioritising service delivery and the fact that the lights were being stolen, meaning we were losing money in the process
— Zweli Dlamini, Ekurhuleni spokesperson
Cape Town mayoral council member for safety and security JP Smith said the city’s lights installation, which stretches the length of Adderley Street and into Darling Street, features about 6km of LED rope light fashioned into various designs.
“They will stay up until the week of 20 to 25 January,” he said.
Durban will also be lit up in festive spirit, though the city’s spokesperson, Gugu Sisilana, could not confirm how much they would cost. “There is no annual budget. The service provider was appointed three years ago [and] designs the artwork for a variety of locations, not just the CBD. The installation of the lights is done by the city.”
Sisilana said the lights in streets such as Dr Pixley kaSeme showcase “the city’s vibrant spirit” for tourists.
City of Johannesburg spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said Christmas lights had been suspended five years ago because of load-shedding. Instead, the Joburg Theatre hosts an annual Joburg Festival of Lights event at the Joburg Zoo during the holiday season, Modingoane said.
The City of Ekurhuleni has done the same. “Unfortunately, we shall not be erecting these lights, but members of the public can do so freely. It has been a while.
“However, it must be noted that Ekurhuleni is a conglomeration of 11 administrations, [each of] which [has its] own Christmas programme, and the time for stopping with certain things would have been done at different intervals.
“It was a strategic decision informed by prioritising service delivery and the fact that the lights were being stolen, meaning we were losing money in the process,” said spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.
Nelson Mandela Bay, Mangaung and Tshwane did not respond to questions about Christmas lights.
Struggling municipalities have also cut back. Maluti-a-Phofung municipality in the Free State stopped putting up Christmas lights more than six years ago.
“It’s more about priorities, seeing that some of our communities are still struggling to get tap water,” said the municipality’s spokesperson, Thabo Kessah.
Merafong local municipality, on Gauteng’s West Rand, stopped putting up Christmas lights more than a decade ago “due to financial constraints”, said spokesperson Nomonde Mahube.
Makhosonke Sangweni, the spokesperson for Emfuleni local municipality, also in Gauteng, said the struggling council last had Christmas lights 10 years ago. “The decision was taken to stop installing them due to budget constraints,” he said.
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