Latest news with #R83-billion
Daily Maverick
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Wanted: A new government for Johannesburg's great people
Johannesburg is increasingly governed by WhatsApp groups, and its citizens are so active that they demand accountability in remarkably resilient and sometimes obstinate ways. There's no hustle like Joburg hustle. We may not have regular electricity, water, a functioning road network, or even streetlights, but that doesn't stop the city from growing. There's always something new starting up or somewhere new to go, so you can fill a social calendar several times. Each day. And the people! Don't even get me started on the level of style in this city, where each country on our continent has a community. It's just lovely. (See this piece on Braamfontein's plans, or this humdinger on five must-sees in the city by Bridget Hilton-Barber for flavour.) But is it 'a world-class African city' as the city government continues to call itself? Not so much. To make it all it can be, this city of great people needs a different way of being governed. There's money. With a budget of R83-billion a year, we should expect more. It's bigger than the national budgets of many African nations and certainly among the spending pies of much larger cities like Lagos and Cairo. In his State of the City Address, Mayor Dada Morero will paint a picture of how much he's doing. Last year, the then mayor, Kabelo Gwamanda, (remember him?) promised many things. Every year since 2021, the State of the City Address has been delivered by a different mayor as coalition government political instability rocks Joburg. The report card shows some progress, but this is because of the city's people rather than its government. Civil society has organised itself so well into organisations such as the Johannesburg Water Crisis Action Group and WaterCAN that improvements in water provision have been made as people have insisted on them. 'We're far away from where we used to be [in crisis],' says Dr Ferrial Adam of WaterCAN. There are improvements, but not enough is being spent on fixing 20 of the city's broken reservoirs, says Adam, who is also concerned that a good water turnaround strategy for Johannesburg Water is not included in the city's Integrated Development Plan, which is the budget blueprint. 'There is (as yet) no major system improvement,' she says. The Jozi My Jozi movement mushroomed out of the business community, and its CEO, Bea Swanepoel, has created a small and dynamic team of can-do people who have done a great deal. They've fixed and lit up the Nelson Mandela Bridge that joins suburbs to the inner city, ramped up and cleaned entry points and exits to the city, and are working with the government on an ambitious plan to make the inner city a truly world-class African old town. The safety improvements stem from a partnership with the CCTV supplier Vumacam. The city is increasingly governed by WhatsApp groups, and its citizens are so active that they demand accountability in remarkably resilient and sometimes obstinate ways. Urbicide There is momentum now to write only the story of seeding improvement, but to do so would be to ignore the urbicide that successive administrations have visited during their stewardship. These charts from the Gauteng City-Region Observatory's quality-of-life survey, released last year, show that services across Gauteng have declined precipitously. This is why the ANC lost power in its heartland province, earning support from only 34% of voters. The province and city also show that coalitions (in place since 2021) are no panacea and that what is needed is a method of co-governance with its people to make Johannesburg all it can be. An upcoming Daily Maverick data investigation in the city will show how its people are now plagued by endemic, multiday electricity cuts. Power cuts led to a decline in ANC power Mayor Morero delivers his speech in the beautiful Constance Bapela Chamber — the Metro Centre, to which it is attached, was abandoned by the city almost two years ago. In a sleight-of-hand by the Johannesburg Property Company, and after two fires not adequately explained to its people, thousands of staff left the building one day in 2023 and never returned. This is what it looks like now: plans abandoned, expensive furniture with nobody to use it, an entire beautiful library, dark and locked. Homeless people have started occupying the lower floors. The information centre adjacent to the building was gutted by fire long ago and never secured or repaired. Urbicide is the killing of a city, and when I visited the abandoned Metro Centre, it felt like an apt description. (Backstory: the Metro Centre was 'decanted' of its people after the fire, pending a massive plan to rebuild a campus, probably by ANC cadres in property. It will take nine years and 11 months to build, during which time the same cadres will earn a fortune in rentals because they also own the buildings where the mayor and other officials now work. Here's that story.) A city must have a Metro Centre, where its citizens get plans approved, get bills sorted out, access city services, chat to councillors, and attend residents' meetings. It's a spinal column, and without it, you kill a city. The Metro Centre tells you all you need to know about city government in Johannesburg. Killing a night economy There's another death to mourn. The Marabi Club, a magnificent 'speakeasy', closes this weekend. It's where I got engaged, and I have many happy memories of the place. This gorgeous jazz venue on the eastern flank of the inner city can't sustain itself. There are virtually no working streetlights in Joburg, and the potholes and regular power and water cuts have seen 40 cultural venues in the inner city shut up shop. The city's night economy has always been a lifeblood of its culture. Marabi perfectly expressed it: the food, the jazz, the people, the venue — stylish with a Sophiatown vibe. 'If you aren't familiar, Marabi is an underground speakeasy, attached to Hallmark House (a beautiful hotel) and inspired by survivalist Marabi culture – a music-driven spirit as old as Johannesburg itself,' writes Laurice Taitz-Buntman, the urbanist and publisher of Johannesburg in your Pocket. Marabi is closing because some nights it runs at only 20% occupancy. Taitz-Buntman writes: 'Johannesburg's decline is not a natural disaster – it is man-made. Entrepreneurs invested passion and capital into revitalising districts like Maboneng and Braamfontein, but the official city government and tourism bodies have mostly remained absent, leaving basic services to fall apart. 'Johannesburg is a city of two narratives: One of intense decline, destruction, dysfunction, and survival in a place where governance has all but disappeared. And another of vibrant creativity, deep human connection, and resilience.' Her message is that we have to support our cultural businesses and nightlife, and support the throbbing vein of zeal and entrepreneurship that defines Johannesburg. We can't do that without a working government. President Ramaphosa sends in a team Two months ago, on 7 March, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced an intervention to arrest Johannesburg's decline. The G20 comes to town in November, and Joburg is a wreck. It's not a good look for the urbane President. Convened under Operation Vulindlela (OV) in the Presidency, it is an informal intervention rather than a Section 139 takeover of a collapsed municipality made in terms of the Constitution. There have been some changes in two months: the inner city is cleaner, as it's the region where the experiment started. It's come too late for Marabi and the other wonderful places that have closed. However, hope is an essential quality of being human, so I trust it will work. The plan is to stabilise city finances, ensure reliable water and electricity supply, restore human settlement planning (there are hundreds of informal settlements around Johannesburg, and homeless people are abandoned), and address the decay of cultural institutions like the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the Johannesburg Library, which recently partially reopened after an inexplicable four-year, R64-million closure. Whenever I chat with people from civil society and the metro government, they are hard at work in four clusters and eight workstreams, which is how Vulindlela operates to get things going. The well-regarded OV team in the Presidency is behind major fixes like Eskom and (possibly) at Transnet. All three levels of government work together to intervene. Morero was due to send his first progress report to Ramaphosa on 5 May — officials say the impact will be more visceral come June.
Daily Maverick
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Lesufi's ‘back to basics' for Joburg is lost in empty promises, potholes and cynicism
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has promised a 'back to basics' campaign to fix services in Gauteng municipalities ahead of the local elections. Some in Joburg say they have reason for optimism. But many residents regard Lesufi's promises with a well-founded cynicism. On Sunday, Premier Panyaza Lesufi spoke at a Gauteng ANC gathering, promising that the ANC in the province would focus on improving services. Although he is the premier, Lesufi is no longer the party's elected leader of the province, but a 'co-convenor' along with Amos Masondo, after the national ANC took over much of its provincial machinery. Lesufi's promises will no doubt stoke optimism in certain quarters. News24 reported that he promised that a 'working group will meet weekly to fix all the traffic lights … [and] all municipalities led by the ANC and our coalition partners have now finally established units to attend to potholes and to repair all the potholes in our province as soon as possible'. But, as weary residents know all too well, there have been many promises for many years about the problems that Joburg faces. In parts of the city, traffic lights have not worked for years. This is because of a dispute between the Joburg Roads Agency and the province about who is responsible for them. Neither side has budged for years, meaning the traffic lights remain unoperational. Potholes, of course, are everywhere. In some places, they are incredibly deep, showing how long they have been there. Some potholes are eventually attended to, in part thanks to the private sector, where at least one company is filling in potholes. Worse, some of the infrastructure is dangerous. Touching dangling electrical wires can be fatal; drains are left as massive holes in the ground. This reporter once caught his young child at the last second as she started falling into a 5m-deep hole at a park. What makes it worse is that the politicians can no longer be believed. For years, the ANC has promised there would be clean governance in Joburg. But as Currency News explained recently, the way your money is wasted is simply obscene. Nearly 10% of the money the City of Joburg spends from its R83-billion budget is classed as unauthorised. Officials who misspend this money get off with virtually no punishment. This explains why the city may be on the cusp of a rates revolt, where residents refuse to pay for services they don't receive. The President's plan Considering the symbolic importance of Joburg in the local elections that must be held before February 2027, it would be rational to assume that the ANC would focus on Gauteng in general, and this city in particular. This would inform President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement nearly two months ago that he would create a Presidential Working Group for Joburg. Strangely, there appears to be no online record of who is on the working group. While there are several references to the fact that it includes civil society groups, the names on the list have not been widely publicised. Read more: Johannesburg's collapse, capture, corruption is a national risk, President to hear. It is known that the group includes officials from the City of Joburg and its entities, the private sector, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), Jozi My Jozi, the SA Property Owners Association and the Joburg Crisis Alliance. Considering that groups like Outa have been very outspoken in their criticism of the government and the Joburg Council in recent years, the fact that this group is working together with those two entities is quite extraordinary. At least one of the working group's members is very positive. Angela Rivers represents the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She says the meetings are 'well-attended, by everyone from the council, from the President's office, and the private sector is committed. And the meetings start on time. The one meeting we finished at 19.30 at night; 55 people logged in at the start, and 55 people logged out when it finished.' She also says the nine workstreams have been given strict deadlines to come up with short-, medium- and long-term plans. Ramaphosa is then expected to put his stamp of approval on the plans, 'and then we have to make it happen'. Considering the lived experience of most people in Joburg, it is surprising to hear such confidence from someone who has been so intimately involved with the city for so long. New promises from old faces Of course, for many people in Joburg, services and infrastructure have declined so consistently for so long that it is difficult to believe any promises of improvement. Lesufi's latest claims have been made before. Crucially, the people who run the city have not changed. There is a big risk that some members of the working group pull out, or that Joburg Council members refuse to implement the group's decisions. Some might feel that if they make real progress, and services and infrastructure do improve, the ANC and Lesufi will claim responsibility. This would be seen as unfair and could lead to a dispute just before the local elections. The depths of the crisis, both in terms of infrastructure and corruption, should not be underestimated. Helen Botes is still the acting city manager, despite a series of apparent scandals over her management of properties and money. The scale of the changes and the amount of money needed at entities like Joburg Water and City Power is huge, and the cash will have to come from somewhere. Most Joburgers must surely believe that it's highly unlikely anything will change for the better in the city in the next two years. It's also unlikely that the results of the local elections will change things significantly, making it hard to see a coalition of like-minded parties forming an administration that can improve things (although support for the ANC is likely to fall dramatically).
