Thanks to years of neglect, the City of Gold isn’t glittering much these days. Dada Morero’s recent reinstatement as mayor has brought renewed focus on stabilising essential services such as water, electricity, and road maintenance. Morero inherits a city in crisis, needing over R44 billion for infrastructure repairs amid severe service delivery issues, including leaking pipes, hijacked buildings and frequent power cuts due to cable theft and vandalism.
Years of political instability and frequent leadership changes (we’ve lost count of how many mayors we’ve had) have hampered meaningful progress. Here’s a round-up of all the problems plaguing Jozi:
- A building fire in Jeppestown has highlighted the ever-present housing problem in the city. The fire, which left four people dead, injured three and left over 200 more displaced, is suspected to have been caused by illegal electricity connections. City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi says the building was never habitable. “The building is an abandoned building, there is a lot of partitions and sheet metals, which the residents have been using to divide the building. This area where we are is actually an industrial site, so they actually divide it with those partitions using those sheet metals to divide the whole building, so that they can be able to reside. So, the building is not a residential area, but it’s an abandoned building,” he said.
The fire comes barely a year after the deadly Usindiso Building Fire, which claimed the lives of 77 people. Joburg Mayor Dada Morero said that the city was investigating and trying to find the owners of the building. He also assured residents that the city was working to end illegally occupied buildings.
- The damage caused by the gas explosion on Lilian Ngoyi (formerly Bree) Street last year has still not been fixed. This is despite former Joburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda promising earlier this year that the street would be fixed by December 2024. But this seems unlikely. And now, The City of Joburg has terminated the contract for the repairs due to the slow progress of the contractor, who, it turns out, was on trial for defrauding City Power of R94 million. Yikes!
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng wants answers. According to DA Johannesburg caucus leader Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku, cancelling the contract is not enough. “Whilst we are relieved that the City terminated the contract for the Lilian Ngoyi Street repairs, without suitable consequence management, this means nothing,” said Kayser-Echeozonjoku. They have requested a comprehensive list of all projects the accused company is currently working on within the city, including details of any projects that have been completed. Additionally, they seek to know the identities of the company’s directors and the officials who served on the Bid Adjudication Committee that awarded this tender. “We want to know what the consequences will be for those guilty of this gross financial mismanagement,” said Kayser-Echeozonjoku.
- Crime remains a major problem in Johannesburg, with Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi revealing that it was the reason seven “big investors” decided to move their businesses to the Western Cape. Lesufi said that the province had “underestimated the depth of crime,” saying that it manifested in many ways. Even with his crime prevention wardens, known as Amapanyaza, the premier said he had not realised the extent of the problem. The city has seen a rise in contact crimes, from 50,039 in 2022 to 51,327 in 2023. This is an increase of 1,288 cases.
The DA has called for the dissolution of the Joburg council, but this is unlikely to happen. We just have to wait either for Morero’s administration to get to work (he has said we shouldn’t expect much) or for the Local Government Elections, where we, the people, show how much power we wield. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.
