Joburg councils can learn from Cape Town

Driving around Joburg, it won’t take you long to spot a neglected pavement, a hole – or many holes – on the road or a water leak. It has just become a way of life for residents of Joburg – ironically dubbed a “world-class city”.

The years of neglect and slow process of trying to fix these is not limited to the City of Gold. Many cities in other provinces face the same problems.

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In our lead today, Moneyweb takes a look at why Joburg roads look like a war zone – and Cape Town’s don’t.

Before thinking we are just making this a Democratic Alliance (DA) versus ANC argument, the article goes beyond that. It puts it down to two main reasons.

The first is care. The article says: “Municipal workers in Cape Town typically take great care and pride in their work. Many are career civil servants who will work for the city for 20, 30 or 40 years. Compare traffic law enforcement by the ‘uncles’ who work for the City of Cape Town with whatever Johannesburg Metro Police Department officers do, and the difference is plain to see.”

The second is structural. “In Cape Town, the various departments within the metro are all part of the same entity… Fault logging is centralised, and these work orders are then dispatched to the relevant crews.”

Having said that, you can’t argue against the fact that the DA runs municipalities well.

All other parties and councils can learn from that.

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