Joburg, with its heroically horrible political leadership, is managing to run a zoo.
The opening of the annual Joburg Festival of Lights at Joburg Zoo on November 28, 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Picture: Gallo Images/Sharon Seretlo
It is the 122nd birthday of the Joburg Zoo – and we should be shouting this from the rooftops. Many Joburg institutions didn’t make their centenary, let alone make it within touching distance of 125 years.
The zoo is not only doing that, but also confounding critics when you realise it is run by the City of Joburg, which has become a byword for administrative dysfunction and financial incontinence.
We are used to traffic lights that don’t work and potholes that can claim tyres, dentures and even change your mind – to say nothing about the rivers of priceless potable water running unchecked down roads.
Joburg Zoo actually works
But when you walk into the Joburg Zoo, everything seems to work. It’s clean, with public facilities spaced at distances that would satisfy a geriatric, refreshment kiosks aplenty, with everything from ice creams to fizzy drinks and hot dogs.
And there are animals; from the riches of the Amazon to just about everything that makes us great as South Africans.
There’s a monument to Max the Gorilla, who famously sorted (in true Joburg style) Isaac Mofokeng in 1997, while he was fleeing the police – but there aren’t any gorillas currently.
Zoo getting upgrades
The good news is the zoo is renovating the cage and preparing for more gorillas.
It’s the same with other empty enclosures: the animals that are supposed to be there aren’t, but at least you’re told. And, while the crocodile enclosure is empty and drained, the inmates are in a hothouse, protected from the worst of a Highveld winter.
It’s unbelievable planning, transparency, and communication – the all-too-often ignored trinity of good governance.
Zoos aren’t easy to run. Ask Pretoria, Bloemfontein and East London, while PE infamously screwed up a perfectly good aquarium.
Smooth operation
And yet Joburg, with its heroically horrible political leadership, is managing to run a zoo – or at least not run it into the ground.
The zoo is a rare augur of what can be achieved – and it should please us all because a moment in its embrace is a moment that allows you to pause and dream: it’s actually world-class, like our city was supposed to be.
If you haven’t been there recently, plan to go on the 22nd of every month; it’s running a special entry fee to let the city celebrate its milestone.
It will need all the support it can get if it wants to make the next 122.
