We need to improve our responses to emergencies

One of our readers points out in a letter today that, had the Joburg CBD explosion happened in many other places in the world, repair work would have already been well under way.

Yet, a week after Lilian Ngoyi, formerly Bree Street, was convulsed by the force of the explosion – the effect of which killed one person and injured 40 others – our municipal experts are no closer to finding out what caused the blast, never mind getting down to repairing the damage.

ALSO READ: Joburg explosion: City management still uncertain on cause of gas blast

We feel that in countries like Japan and China, traffic and business would long since have been back to normal.

Is this, though, unfair on our city’s workers and planners? We don’t think so, given that a number of bad sinkholes across Gauteng have still not been fully repaired months after they collapsed.

If South Africa is ever to take its place among the leading nations of the world – which many believe to be our birthright, our lack of energy notwithstanding – we are going to have to maintain our infrastructure better… and improve our responses to emergencies.

ALSO READ: Joburg CBD explosion: The 3 possible causes identified by the City

Does no-one care enough – or is it, more worryingly, about how much money can be creamed off the contracts for infrastructure rehabilitation?