Vodacom SA is the latest company and property owner to partner with the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) to ensure that traffic signals along major intersections in Johannesburg operate during load shedding.
The partnership, spearheaded by the JRA and facilitated through a Service Level Agreement (SLA), will leverage electricity sourced from Vodacom’s adjacent buildings to power traffic lights. Through this initial phase of the 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.
Sitho Mdlalose, CEO of Vodacom South Africa, says the partnership emphasises the importance of business and government working together to tackle societal challenges.
“Motorists in the area can spend an unnecessarily extended amount of time stuck in traffic because of non-functioning traffic lights in the area,” says Mdlalose. “And when people are running late this hinders their productivity which, in turn, negatively affects our economy.”
Non-functioning traffic lights, he adds, can cause a rise in criminal activity as well an increase in accidents. “Through this partnership we hope to drive efficiency on our roads and ensure the safety of our community.”
JRA acting CEO, Zweli Nyathi, says: “Class three 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 two 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 2 000 and 3 000 vehicles travelling in both directions on Lever Road during morning and afternoon peak hour.”
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 addition, 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.