The greatest gift that the G20 has given to Joburg residents has been the opportunity to focus on the state of our city.
The much-vaunted G20 is finally upon us, notwithstanding some last-minute high-profile cancellations and, in one case, an actual fatwa by one administration on any of its officials participating.
In typical South African fashion not everything has gone to plan.
OR Tambo International Airport had neither power, nor running water on Sunday, while parts of our city remain as shocking as they were to our president six months ago.
That was when he convened a task team to address the potholes and non-functioning street lights, if only on the key routes that delegates will be taking this week and especially at the weekend when the heads of state gather.
The G20, the first on African soil, will be a success though – international petulance notwithstanding – because that is the way South Africans are, whether it is taking on the world’s best with only 14 players for two weeks in a row to hosting the globe’s most powerful.
We will wrest victory from the jaws of defeat – or urban decay; the delegates will be safe despite the headlines, unless they defy common sense to go into the really dodgy areas to do dodgy things – as some visiting airline pilots have been wont to do.
ALSO READ: G20 visitors, make happy memories
The greatest gift that the G20 has given us, once we’ve got over the disruption of not being able to go to Soccer City or shop at Sandton this weekend, has been the opportunity to focus on the state of our city.
We are inured to the reality of indigents directing traffic at clogged interchanges, of grass verges almost returning part of the city to the original veld and of scarce water running unchecked down streets and creating even bigger potholes than the ones we try to miss in the murk.
It shouldn’t be like that anywhere, but certainly not in the city that boasts the richest square mile on the continent (also complete with its volunteer pointsmen and potholes).
We read over and over of the dysfunctionality of local government, ignoring the fact that Joburg’s metropolitan council is the second largest legislature in the country and its operating budget is twice that of the entire Free State province.
The fact that this city is being run into the ground is our fault. We are the ratepayers. We get what we voted for.
Hosting the G20 should be a wake-up call. We won’t get another.
NOW READ: Dry runs for G20 elite but none for road safety
