As the city continues to spiral into a pit of dysfunction – civil society attempts to slow the decline

SCORE of the city by Caxton: 2

Johannesburg city entities have been under the Caxton spotlight for the past three months as their performance and overall health have been examined.

The results have shown grotesque and borderline criminal failings across the board, which are crippling residents and local businesses.

In short, the health of the country’s most important financial hub is critical and unstable.

Entities in focus have been:

• City Parks
• City Power
• Emergency Services
• JMPD
• Johannesburg Property Company
• Johannesburg Roads Agency
• Johannesburg Water
• Johannesburg Zoo
• Pikitup
• The Mayor

Julius Kleynhans, Outa executive manager for Local Government, says, “There will be catastrophic consequences if the municipality fails to reform.”

Energy expert and managing director of EE Business Intelligence, Chris Yelland has a similarly dire forecast. “Johannesburg is going backwards as the city fails to provide even the most basic services reliably, like the provision of water and electricity.”

William Gumede, Associate Professor in the School of Governance at Wits University goes a step further. “Johannesburg is not just in trouble; it is a failed city where incompetence and corruption are working together which is fatal for any municipality.
“Never in the history of mankind has voting for corrupt people resulted in service delivery. People don’t seem to realise this and keep voting for corrupt leaders.”

He describes a liveable city as an urban centre that has a thriving social scene, cared-for parks with dedicated areas where children can play and socialise, safe public transport, affordable healthcare and even nightlife. “Much of previously thriving nighttime activities are now either no longer possible as businesses have closed or because it is unsafe to visit an area after dark. The CBD, for example, is avoided by most when the sun sets because it is unsafe, which is sad.”

The recently released Auditor-General’s report is grim.

While the following failings were not specifically about Johannesburg only, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke’s findings might as well have been.

She neatly outlines problems that mimic what multiple civil society representatives and organisations have said about the city during this series of investigative articles.

“Poor financial management remained prevalent,” she says. “Municipalities lost revenue because they were not billing and collecting revenue, and due to water and electricity losses as a result of infrastructure neglect.
“They were also not careful with their spending practices. The main reasons for the continuing financial losses and waste were poor payment practices, uncompetitive and uneconomical procurement practices, limited value and benefit received for money spent, and weaknesses in project management.
“Unfunded budgets and high unauthorised expenditure clearly show the weaknesses in financial planning.”

The main reasons municipalities are losing money include:

• Poor payment and billing practices
• Unfair or uneconomical procurement practices
• No or limited benefit received for money spent – including the ineffective use of consultants
• Weaknesses in project management
• Fraud committed by officials.

Politics over people

Writer and activist Mark Heywood doesn’t hold back when discussing the mayor, the man at the helm of the city.

“Dada Morero’s interests are primarily in his party, the ANC, his cronies and himself. He is part of the problem of ‘city capture’.”

Johannesburg needs a new political beginning which, unfortunately, will only happen if its citizens start to prepare now to elect leaders in 2026 who are tried and tested servants of their communities, who are accountable, transparent and willing to work together to build an inclusive, dynamic city.

Michael O’Donovan, a data scientist, agrees. “The challenges faced by the councillors arise from the political parties ensuring that their party interests trump those of the electorate.”

Civil society is the glue holding the city together

Gumede adds, “Can you imagine how much worse off the city would be if it were not for dedicated civic organisations and activists? These institutions and ordinary citizens are preventing the total collapse of the city.

“When private businesses are not successful, they are closed but state-owned entities can’t do that. More and more money is pumped into the rotten system and performance is still not turned around.”

Many well-established non-profit organisations have for years battled and fought small and large battles against corruption, exploitation and public oversight. Organisations such as Outa, the Helen Joseph Foundation, Lawyers for Human Rights and more are rightly thanked for their work.

But it is also the smaller, local outfits that work with enormous benefit to the city – and often without a guaranteed or expected salary each month. Activists and regular folk routinely give their time and expertise to identify problems, offer potential solutions or highlight issues for others up the chain to tackle.The Johannesburg Crisis Alliance, Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, JoburgCAN and so many others are all striving for a common goal that is the same as that for Jozi My Jozi: A movement born out of a deep passion for Johannesburg and a desire to see the city thrive once again.

Jozi My Jozi’s teams, activists and supporters are engaged in creative and determined efforts to see the inner city restored to previous standards.

This journalist joined them on a clean-up operation in the CBD along with Hillbrow police and others one evening. The stench, rubbish, cat-sized rats and more were overwhelming. If not for outfits such as Jozi My Jozi, surely the CBD would be wholly inaccessible due to being a biological and other health hazard environment.

The Johannesburg Homelessness Network led by Mary Gillett-de Klerk tirelessly advocates for more effort and options available to men and women who find themselves sleeping rough. Of the more than 20 000 estimated homeless in the city, there are less than
1 000 homeless shelter beds. That was before the 250-bed Kotze Street shelter in Braamfontein was closed a year ago for ‘structural’ reasons – its doors remain locked.

De Klerk says she cannot understand why none of the multitudes of empty or abandoned city-owned buildings have not been turned into appropriate accommodation for the homeless, ‘with facilities and programmes that are better suited to the current model employed by the city,’ which is not making the prospect of entering a space more practical and attractive.

“Hence, many people remain on the streets rather than making moves to rebuild their lives and the cycle continues, and the desperation spins out of control.”
This quote feels prophetic when pondering the plight of the City of Gold as the last words are being typed in this serial.

With all the finger-pointing about who is responsible for what – it is virtually impossible to hold anyone accountable.

It is as clear as mud what the city will look like when the local government elections are held in just under two years. But if nothing drastic is implemented now, then the city is in for a rough(er) time.