No budget, no bridge, no answers from JRA

Avoiding responsibility is rife in Johannesburg, as many resident victims know.

There is no vaccine for this numbing condition. Known variously as shiftus blamus, deflectivitis, or the blame flu, it spreads quickly in environments populated by officials.

Shiftus blamus has been known to immobilise entire organisations, making them incapable of doing anything useful.

Joburg Water and City Power, for example, have been known to be unresponsive to countless requests from residents and councillors for updates on outages.

Not even “noted”, just schtum.

Symptoms persist, even when words such as communication or stakeholder relations appear in the officials’ titles or job descriptions. Communication is their job but, somehow, it’s someone else’s responsibility.

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Joburg Road Agency (JRA) and City Parks display a ping-pong version of shiftus blamus. If you ask JRA who is responsible for cutting pavement vegetation, JRA say it’s City Parks’ job. City Parks point to JRA.

There have been different strains of this ailment but the underlying shiftus condition seems incurable.

Pavements remain overgrown.

Another variation has broken out with JRA saying they are not responsible for the infamous damaged Blue Bridge across the Braamfontein Spruit in Craighall Park.

Over more than seven years I have been onsite there on numerous occasions with JRA officials. Not once did JRA say anything about the bridge being anyone else’s responsibility.

There were always other reasons for inaction. Lack of budget was cited.

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Or the issue was not high enough on JRA’s priority list where threat to life, limb and property could open the door to fund allocation.

After the bridge was damaged during floods in March, there was a flurry of publicity. JRA assumed responsibility. They declared the bridge unsafe and tried unsuccessfully to barricade access.

They undertook preliminary investigations, but response to councillors and the public was slow despite repeated requests. So we launched a petition demanding, among other things, an onsite meeting.

Under pressure, JRA suddenly could not find any mention of the bridge on their systems. They declared it must belong to City Parks as it is situated in a park.

City Parks folk don’t have the engineering qualifications, skills and experience required for building or repairing bridges. Like JRA they don’t have the money either, so we are not going to knock on that door.

JRA don’t have enough money to repair and maintain bridges on their list, never mind the Blue Bridge.

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We are not asking JRA to pay for it. That money could come from the disaster relief funds made available by national government in a 7 March Gazette for precisely such infrastructure damage. Otherwise, the community is willing and able to raise funds.

However, we need authorisation from a Joburg entity. City Parks cannot be expected to reconstruct or sign off a bridge, which requires engineering oversight and approval. The onus falls within JRA’s mandate.

Meet us onsite. Let’s agree on what’s to be done.

Then let the community run with it, subject to JRA sign off.

We are all sick and tired of inaction. The Blue Bridge is vital to the well-being of the community.

Shake off those blame flu blues. Just do it.

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