Pics: Neglect and violence turned business district into a dystopian scene

An entire street of businesses in the automotive and engineering sector have shut down after years of battling cable theft, illegal connections, crime, and vandalism in Jeppestown, Johannesburg

Suburban street resembles a ghost town, as most businesses on it have been shut down since July. Dwellers of hijacked buildings and surrounding hostels have apparently wreaked havoc on several properties, with illegal connections that have caused hazardous fires and cable theft that has cost millions in damage.

Business owners say the city’s failure to deal with crime and security issues in Jeppestown affected service delivery and led to the demise of their busineses.

The violent looting sprees which emanated from protests against former president Jacob Zuma’s incarceration became the straw which broke the camel’s back for distraught business owner John Lopes.

His auto-parts firm Lopes Bearing Engineering was already struggling to cope with the cost of constant break-ins, week-long power cuts, and high crime, which has been the reality for hundreds of establishments in the area.

“On the 11th of July this year we got a message from ADT Alarm Security saying we were getting broken into and I knew from that moment that everything was destroyed,” said Lopes.

“I couldn’t go into work for the whole week because that area is just so stuffed up. It was horrendous, because people were going in and out of my building. They took everything of mine. My workshop, my office, my tool room. They stole all my tools and destroyed all of my machines. Now I am sitting with bills of R58 000 for water and lights, and I haven’t been there for three months.”

Lopes is uncertain about his future because his insurance company is yet to resolve his claim, and some of his machines will cost R1,4 million to replace. He is also facing backlash from his remaining staff, whom he has been unable to pay.

They have threatened to take him to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). All he has been able to do for the past three months is wait.

“I have had a meeting telling them that I am waiting for the insurance to phone me so I can let them know what’s going on. For the past months it’s been sitting at home… It’s put a damper on the way I treat my kids and my wife and its not their fault. There is a business of 25 years that going to take a lot to rebuild.”

Also Read: WATCH: JHB burning amid ‘Gauteng Shutdown’ protests

16 people have lost their jobs at Wingate Motors, including a married couple, Fred Nolan, 64 and Isabel Coetzee,50, who have worked at the establishment for decades.

Coetzee says the day the riots spread to Jeppestown, she sat hiding in her car at the corner of the street watching people pouring into the property and coming out with stolen goods until there was nothing left. The business was established 61 years ago.

Even before the riots, the area was notorious for crime, and by the time their establishment was burnt to the ground in July, Wingate had lost its business insurance.

According to Coetzee the company and others who met the same fate on Suburban street are trying to claim from the South African Special Risk Insurance Association (SASRIA). According to Coetzee, the City of Johannesburg recently slapped them with a R20 000 utilities bill, despite having been shut down for three months and their water infrastructure looted along with everything else.

“The only help we have got from the city is when they came to evaluate our building after it burned down,” says Coetzee.

“We have been asking them since 2014 to deal with the squatters and hijacked buildings, because they are the ones who steel cables, steal our equipment, and make illegal connections that cause power cuts for the whole street.”

Cities in despair

A stone’s throw away from the devastation is the Maboneng Precinct, an urban development zone that has thrived despite the perils of the Covid-19 pandemic. But residents here have mixed views on whether the coming local government election can bring change to their lives.

This as the City of Johannesburg has been highlighted as one of the low scorers in Consulta’s 8th South African Citizen Satisfaction Index (SA-csi), which shows that trust in local municipalities to deliver basic services has dropped to its lowest ebb since the index’s inception in 2017.

Also Read: South Africans are truly fed up with country’s metros, survey reveals

All metros showed a decline in overall citizen satisfaction scores compared with 2020, except Nelson Mandela Bay, which showed a marginal improvement of 0,7 index points, pointing to a slight positivity increase.

Well below the City of Cape Town’s score of 66 (out of 100), Ekurhuleni scored 52,2 after declining by a significant -6,2 on its 2020 score.

Nelson Mandela Bay (50,5) and Ethekwini (50,1), and Tshwane (50,0) are on par, while City of Johannesburg (47,2), Buffalo City (44,0) and Mangaung (32,6) come in below par.

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za