A 24-hour workday for Joburg is wishful thinking

One thing we South Africans can do especially well – particularly when all is crumbling around us – is come up with pie-in-the-sky schemes.

One being discussed at the moment is to turn Joburg into a “24-hour city” – where government, municipal and other services would be available around the clock.

The theory is that this will make life much easier for citizens and improve service delivery.

Certainly, there would be one sector of the community eager to get involved: criminals could now target offices and businesses 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

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Those punting the idea say, in the sort of naivete which should be bottled it is so powerful, that the cops can be also be deployed around the clock, because protecting is their job and this would only entail widening the deployment.

There are some flies in this fanciful ointment, however.

Where is our broke government going to find the money to treble staffing levels?

And why can the existing bloated civil service not be made to do its work instead of hiring in more people?

It would be far more effective if the authorities concentrated on getting the basics right.

Then the city would be worth living in … all day.