Democratic Alliance mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, Helen Zille, used her recent oversight visit to Alexandra to highlight service delivery challenges around the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court.

Zille pointed to wastewater flowing on 2nd Street and pavements blocked by street vendors as obstacles that, in her view, undermine the justice system’s functioning.

Although she has previously visited Alexandra, including the Helen Joseph Women’s Hostel, Zille said this visit focused on facilities under the National Department of Justice.

Read more: Helen Joseph Hostel sewer upgrade falls short of flushing away wider problems

“This time, we are here to look at the issues that impede the functioning of the court. Obviously, lack of water is a regular one, but then access to the court over the sewage flowing on the streets and blocked pavements from all the vendors is a massive problem for the application of justice,” she said.

Zille also revisited the Alexandra Renewal Project, which was meant to improve Alexandra through integrated development. According to City of Johannesburg records, the project was first announced more than two decades ago, with an estimated budget of R1.3b. However, slightly over a decade after its launch, R2.21b had been spent on the project, according to the South African Human Rights Commission and the Public Protector.

@caxtonjoburgnorth WATCH: Helen Zille talks about an oversight visit to the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court to look at the service delivery challenges that impede the functioning of the court. #Alex #DA ♬ original sound – Caxton Joburg North

Yet Alexandra continues to grapple with a myriad of issues, which Zille said do not reflect a place where billions have already been spent on improvements.

“In 2019, so little had been delivered that the Human Rights Commission and the Public Protector looked into it and said there had to be proper accounting for what had happened to the money, how much had been spent on Alex and how much money had just disappeared,” Zille said.

She alleged that corruption, misspending, and poor maintenance have stalled progress in Alexandra, and noted what has to be done to solve the current challenges in Alex. “We would need to have a forensic audit to find out what happened to the R3b [R2.21b according to verifiable sources], because you cannot possibly spend R3b on a place and have it look like this.”

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She outlined several proposals she believes are necessary to address Alexandra’s challenges, including tackling overcrowding, improving hostel conditions, enforcing immigration laws, and introducing proper maintenance programmes.

Johannesburg officials have acknowledged the infrastructure challenges along 2nd Street. Alex News can confirm that the city’s regional director, Thaba Makgafela, noted service delivery issues near the court and admitted that the road infrastructure is ‘a bit of a challenge’ because the area does not have stormwater drains.

He added that the initial agreement with the executive mayor was that the Johannesburg Development Agency would develop a programme to enable repairs to the road.

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