Johannesburg – has the City of Gold finally lost its shine?
It’s been on the cards for a while, but a decade of deterioration may finally have brought the once golden city of Johannesburg to the brink of collapse.
Years of corruption, combined with a severe lack of investment in development and maintenance, have seen basic service delivery – particularly from Joburg Water and City Power – grind to a virtual halt. Add to this the potholed and crumbling roads, decaying infrastructure, and rampant crime, and it’s not hard to see that, despite many proud residents saying it’s too big to fail, Johannesburg is indeed doing exactly that.
Jozi vs Jozi, a page on X (formerly Twitter), used comparative Google Maps Street View images from 2009-2013 and 2023 to paint what it termed a “harrowing picture” of just how dramatic this failure is.
Here are couple of examples from their page:
It’s not hard to see why the anonymous creator of the account describes Johannesburg as a city resembling one “affected by armed conflict.” They go on to say, “The scale of atrophy and urban regression in Johannesburg is unprecedented. I can’t think of anywhere else in the world that has experienced such an intense collapse in such a short span of time – cities bombed in the Middle East, maybe.”
The frustrating thing about most of Johannesburg’s challenges is that they are largely self-inflicted. The blame for many of the city’s failings can be laid squarely at the feet of the various municipalities whose gross mismanagement has resulted in ongoing water supply issues, decaying roads, non-operational traffic lights and collapsing infrastructure.
The latter is largely responsible for the water crisis engulfing large swathes of the city. Little maintenance and even less long-term planning means the existing supply is woefully inadequate for the increasing demand.
Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pemmy Majodina, takes pains to explain that there is enough water in the province’s dams and that Rand Water is drawing enough water from the Vaal River System.
“What we are going through in Gauteng is self-inflicted pain by municipalities, where they did not do what is necessary to adequately maintain their infrastructure,” she said.
A large part of the problem is what Rand Water terms “non-revenue water” (water the city cannot bill for) which now accounts for almost half of all water provided. This is water that is “lost” on its way from Rand Water to the end user, due mainly to leaking pipes, faulty infrastructure, unbilled authorised consumption (water supplied to informal environments and used for network maintenance), and illegal connections and meters.
Corruption and a lack of strong leadership is also a significant contributing factor.
Johannesburg has had no fewer than eight mayors since 2019 – one of whom, Kabelo Gwamanda, didn’t even finish school or obtain a matric certificate.
“The City of Johannesburg has had a revolving door of mayors that resembled a game of musical chairs,” says Ferrial Adam, executive manager at WaterCAN under the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse. “This affects governance across all areas of the city as there can never be a clear strategy or plan to tackle key issues. You are stuck floundering for quick fixes and can never get things done while opening the door for corruption and mismanagement.”
She has called on national government to step in, and for National Treasury to ringfence the grants it provides the city to ensure they’re used for infrastructure maintenance.
These grants are desperately needed as Joburg’s financial situation is no less dire than that of its infrastructure. Water governance expert Professor Richard Meissner said the city’s financial issues are the most urgent, as without adequate funding, very little can be done.
Recently elected Mayor Dada Morero agrees, saying the city is “hard at work” tackling the water crisis but is severely limited by its finances. “We need R1 billion just to deal with our reservoirs, with around 45 needing to be refurbished as they are leaking,” he said.
Information expert Bloomberg cites a total figure of around R220 billion to get its water, energy and transport infrastructure back to basics.
And yet, on the surface, money shouldn’t be an issue.
An article in the Daily Maverick reports that the city has a healthy operating budget of R73 billion, a capital expenditure budget of R7 billion, and the numerous aforementioned conditional grants from the National Treasury.
It SHOULD have enough to work efficiently.
But, the article continues, scratch beneath that fragile surface veneer and you discover that around R20 billion is spent on services City of Johannesburg employees should be performing.
Money is also regularly splashed on vanity projects that look good on the city’s social media pages.
And yet somehow, Johannesburg manages to retain its position as South Africa’s economic powerhouse. According to the City of Johannesburg, it contributes 16.5% of South Africa’s GDP and employs 12% of the national workforce. Over 70% of South African companies have their headquarters in Johannesburg.
The city also hosts the JSE Limited, Africa’s largest stock exchange, and the 16th largest globally.
In addition, despite tens of thousands of its residents living below the poverty line, Johannesburg continues to boast the highest concentration of millionaires in Africa, with over 12 000-dollar millionaires and two billionaires.
Yet I have to question how much longer this will continue to be the case.
Johannesburg’s ongoing deterioration and rising crime rate have seen many of its wealthier residents relocate to the Western Cape. In fact, almost half of its millionaires have left in the past decade.
Cape Town has been the biggest beneficiary of this so-called “semigration” – its millionaire count has increased by 20% in the last 10 years and it is set to overtake Joburg as Africa’s wealthiest city in the next five.
So, what has to happen to stem this worrying tide of decay washing over the once great city of Johannesburg?
It’s clear that corruption has to be brought under control. Wits University Adjunct Professor Alex van den Heever said corrupt government officials had turned Johannesburg into a “crime scene”.
“There is complete neglect from one end to the other. It looks like a failed state,” he said, adding that the public officials responsible for oversight and management of Johannesburg’s buildings and infrastructure have no incentive to do their jobs.
“They’re making money from its destruction, not from its upkeep. There is no other explanation for what we’re seeing,” he said. “It’s extremely worrying because the collapse is rapid at this point, and there appears to be absolutely no plan to address this at all.”
If this is indeed the case, then I fear for the future of Egoli. Has our once golden goose laid its last egg?