The once-flourishing City of Gold is fast eroding before our eyes, as service delivery failures take their toll. The recent gas explosion that tore through the central business district in Johannesburg last week is just one such example of a city falling apart. Following the latest incident, we asked News24 Johannesburg readers to tell us how they feel about the city.
Photography by Alfonso Nqunjana
Another timebomb like the Bree street blast is waiting to happen
As residents, we are expected to pay our rates and taxes, yet look at what we get for it.
When the residents take it upon themselves to repair the potholes, we are threatened with legal action. Burst water pipes are a common sight when driving on our roads, and when they are eventually repaired, the leak springs further down the line. Getting to work or school is a nightmare due to traffic lights not working. If one has to be on time for work or an appointment, an extra hour or two of travel time is needed.
Load shedding is fine, but when it goes on for three or four days then something is definitely amiss. The ward councillors try their utmost and bear the brunt of the residents' frustrations. All this while our mayor is either absent or doesn't give a damn. Take your pick.
On top of this, we are expected to pay our rates and taxes for non-existent or poorly delivered services. World class, indeed.
The governing party is sitting on a political timebomb that will make the Bree Street blast seem like a picnic, yet they don't seem to care.
- Eugene Subramony
I'm jumping out the window. Are you following?
"When you see me jumping out of the window - follow.”
During my many years in business, I have often quoted this to portray confidence and to reduce anxiety in staff members. After all, if I wasn't concerned, they needn’t be.
I have lived in Johannesburg in the beautiful and character-filled suburb of Kensington for over 50 years after moving here as a teenager in the early 1970s. I have invested in my community for decades.
I have served on Ratepayers Association and provided resources and funding, I have served on the Governing Bodies of schools for many years, I fund community initiatives, and I am a director and finder of a non-profit organisation called Clean Village that cleans the streets and removes dumped items, the list goes on. I have contributed.
Yet despite the efforts of so many people like myself, the City is in a state of disrepair and dysfunction and it doesn’t take any effort to see it. I don’t much care for the political pandering about whose is to blame, and I can’t see the minds that got us into this mess being the minds that get us out of it. The city may not be broken beyond repair, but it is broken beyond the repair capability of those tasked to ensure it functions.
When dedicated people like me who make a significant effort to build and maintain the city we loved for so long decide to jump out of the window, you may want to follow.
- Andre Grobler
Seven month water leak and still not fixed
We have a water leak in our road that dates back to at least January this year, possibly longer. It has been reported to Johannesburg Water several times, and they have sent people out to look at it, but no action has been taken. The leak is now far worse.
This is one of several ongoing issues in the area. However, they seem totally disinterested in fixing this leak, which pours down the road 24/7 and is even now entering our complex adjacent to the road.
The DA councillor for the area, Vino Reddy, has engaged with Johannesburg Water multiple times and they gave the excuse that they only have one working digger for the entire city!
The standards under the new administration (and I use the word loosely) have declined very sharply to the point where they just don't respond to reports now.
One suspects the attitude is, "Well, it's just a leak; what's the big deal?".
- Mark Crozier
Paintwork is fading but infrastructure is unused
For years the City worked on widening parts of Louis Botha Avenue and making other improvements to that busy route, including installing at least six (maybe as many as 12) Reya Vaya bus stops between Alexandra township and Braamfontein.
In addition to this, a new bridge was built over the M1 Highway (between Marlboro Drive and Grayston Drive) also for Reya Vaya buses. But to date not a single bus has used that route, nor that bridge, nor those stations. The red and blue paintwork on the stations is already fading and no doubt we are spending a fortune guarding all of this infrastructure. Why build it if it is not going to be used?
And in addition to that, the City demolished an old taxi rank next to Park Station and then went about building a very impressive facility for Cross border buses and taxis. This has been complete for at least two years but not a single bus nor taxi is able to use this facility. The lights are on, the guards are there guarding the place but it is not being used.
Why waste all this money, time and effort building this infrastructure if it is not going to be used?
- Pierre Simon
Are our leaders not ashamed?
As I drive my almost daily commute along the M1, visiting clients between Braamfontein and Sandton, my eyes and mind wander. My eyes wander left and right to the sidewalks and embankments as I navigate the dusty mid-winter Johannesburg highway. I am purposeful to observe the piles of litter strewn along the unkept veld, the weeds and remnants of man-made fires, clearly lit to burn mounds of trash.
All of this is along a stretch of 15km highway, which cuts through some of the wealthiest areas of Johannesburg. The visual chaos is only matched by the chaos that goes on in my mind as it, too, begins to wander.
I wonder whether others see this trash heap that is the M1 highway? Do others, like me feel a sense of shame? Do our so-called ‘leaders’ in local government even have the ability to feel shame? Do they see what I see, or are the tinted windows of their black SUVs there to protect them from observing the reality of Johannesburg as they pass it by on the way to their manicured estates and tax-payer sponsored mansions?
I am left with this question which doesn’t seem to want to leave me: How do we get our ‘leaders’ to see what I see? How do we shame our ‘leaders’ into action?
- Michael Currin
Even in poorer communities across the world the areas are cleaner than Joburg
I work across various settings worldwide - South America, Asia and Africa. Even the poorest communities I have been to are cleaner and heaps better than most parts of Jozi.
Other than a few leafy suburbs in the North (where all of the upper middle class and wealthy live in bubbles), there's litter everywhere, even on the side of the highways. It’s disgusting. Is this how we want to live?
It's not even walkable. As a woman you are afraid of being raped or mugged so I walk around my complex for exercise or I am forced to go to the gym. There’s no consequences for criminals stealing our cables every second day.
It's unbearable. There is either no water, no electricity, no internet and many times all of these services are non-existent at the same time. What on earth are we being taxed for?
I travelled to Cape Town recently, and I can see why people are migrating. There’s not much left of the city. Don't believe what you watch on Netflix. Jozi is nothing like what they show you on 'Young, Famous and African'.
- Shakira Choonara
Falling infrastructure apparent during my morning run
I live in Parkmore, Sandton. I’m a road runner so I traverse the whole of the northern suburbs on foot. In the last 18 months, the breakdown in the infrastructure has been exponential.
Virtually every block I travel on foot has broken and leaking municipal water pipes seeping out into the road and down storm water drains. Some of them have not been repaired in over a year. Apart from losing water, the constant seepage has caused potholes in the roads, which are also left unattended.
The sewage network appears to be also compromised in many areas where blockages are left unattended, and sewage now also flowing out of many manholes.
- Louis Speirs
Meter woes and an illegal connection
On 12 July, the electricity cables from the pole to our property were vandalised for the third time in the past two months. City Power came to fix it later that day. The next day our postpaid meter was stolen from the box outside our property. We have stayed in our house for the past 36 years and have never had a meter stolen. When we phoned to report it, we were told that we needed a case number from the police. We got a case number, but couldn't report it as the online fault reporting system was down. Calls to City Power were fruitless. Eventually, we managed to report via the online system.
A technician came with a prepaid meter on 14 July and assured us a technician would come with a postpaid meter. On the Saturday, the cables were vandalised again. A technician reconnected the wires in our box without a meter and assured us that on a technician would come on the Monday. We waited the whole week. The following Saturday, the cables were vandalised again and a fault reported.
When City Power came on the Sunday, we were told they would not go ahead because of the illegal connection. We are still waiting to the matter to be resolved.
- Catherine Segenhout
I had stars in my eyes about Joburg, but that has dimmed
I moved to Joburg in 2007 with stars in my eyes, like many other people. The energy of the city was infectious. I met so many good people and experienced the sheer joy of living in a cultural hub.
Clubs and culture were thriving, work was great, and everyone was friendly and happy. Now I am struggling to survive in a completely different city.
Those who have not left are depressed, the business centre is migrating and nothing works. I don't want to leave, but living here is an every day emotional and physical burden. I am so sad. And so angry at the government.
- Nikki Comninos
Without love, cities die
The old man ran out of money when he was considered “too old to do a decent job”. He was sacked by his employer, who paid him a small severance package. He had no choice. When his children realised that they couldn't feed off him anymore, they practically abandoned him. He moved into a shack that a friend offered him. In the absence of his children around his fire, his health deteriorated progressively. He became frail.
The poorest of the poor bothered to care. They shared their meagre provisions with him. Bread, boiled bones, offal, used tea bags, pap, and sometimes, the most luxurious golden sugar – probably stolen from someone else. The attention from unknown faces kept him alive, hanging on until the next person walked into the door.
Nobody really knew how bad his condition was. Underneath the filthy blanket, he was beyond feeble. Bed sores, poor hygiene, rotting teeth, and unceasing stomach aches were the symptoms of a man that was supposed to be dead.
Without love, people die. Without love, cities die.
Johannesburg was also laid off by the powers that be. Its job was always to be South Africa's financial powerhouse. But for inexplicable reasons, they decided that its flavour wasn't good anymore. Because Johannesburg's family started to look for short-term excitement and stopped believing in delayed gratification. They couldn’t see the benefit of caring more and saving the old man for a better, more rewarding future, a future with another generation.
Johannesburg’s carers stopped caring.
- Janine Wessels
Your support affords us the time and resources to produce rich, in-depth journalism that matters.
Built with Shorthand