More than 70 people that were illegally occupying a building died after fire broke out in the Johannesburg CBD on 31 August 2023. The building has been described as an "informal settlement" where homeless people lived. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
Of course one of the City of Johannesburg’s buildings burned down. Of course it was a building that was handed over to an NGO. Of course the NGO was shut down under suspect circumstances.
Of course the building was hijacked and the police couldn’t do anything about it. Of course they were kicked into the stone age and forced to use candles. What else do you expect from a city that can’t even hold onto a mayor?
At some point, the City of Johannesburg lost sight of what the function of a municipality is supposed to be and nobody can feign surprise at the outcome.
It’s not like you see the JSE burning down or residential buildings owned by investment companies. Investment companies like to do something crazy – protect their investments. Authorities in Johannesburg seem less interested in that but more interested in who gets the envied jobs in the upper levels of governance. Funny thing is that the job description for all of them seems to have become a single line item: keep your job.
We must, obviously, avoid dancing on the graves of those who died in this terrible fire and, due to the neglect of the city, the many more who will in inevitable future catastrophes. That is not what this is. This isn’t an I-told-you-so moment. This is a moment to really look at how you hold those in charge to account.
ALSO READ: Property owners take City of Joburg to court over illegal occupations
Political constituency was supposed to be convenient for us. It was supposed to allow us to look at parties and say you’re good, you’re bad and so we go with the good guys. Now it just seems to muddy the water. There were so many mayors in the past seven years I can’t tell who was supposed to do something about the building. I can’t even point to the right party nor coalition. What’s the point of political representation if the only ones who benefit from it are the political representatives who blame each other at every single occasion of error?
Let’s say there was a goal. Hypothetically, call it developing a world class African city. Would it not be prudent to take a look at what you’re working with and consider how to leverage all that you have towards that goal?
If you’ve got a building and you’re letting it chill there all hijacked and unelectrified, it’s probably not the best way to leverage said building towards the goal. Worse still, if you have a police force, sorry, I mean police service, which can’t reclaim your own building then that’s cause for concern. What world class African city can’t protect its property with its own police? It’s rather embarrassing.
But no! These are not priorities. Why should they be? They don’t affect the people getting paid to resolve the problem. They just affect the people with the problem. The people being paid to solve the problem have better problems to deal with. Like who to blame for the problem and who they need to curry favour with to keep their jobs.
ALSO READ: Families of 74 killed in Joburg fire urged to go to Diepkloof mortuary to identify loved ones
Don’t be surprised when the city forgets the victims next month after the next government sponsored catastrophe. It’s horrific to even write but as I type it, I’m reminded of how just this year, we’ve already forgotten about Johannesburg’s lack of preparation for flooding and methane leaks. Let me not bother considering the provincial government’s track record. You know, the one that includes Life Esidimeni.
Somebody has to say it. The time these “leaders” commit to keeping their jobs is time taken from doing what we’re paying them to do. Nobody pays taxes so that other people can fight to see who takes the money home. If that’s what we wanted, we’d watch pay-per-view boxing.
It would be nice to get a government that cares about governing. If we had that, there would be no reason why a city building would be hijacked, why police won’t be able to protect a building and certainly no reason for a building to catch fire. That’s a world class African city and it’s a far cry from today’s Johannesburg.
I’m embarrassed to say… but at least we have a mayor.
ALSO READ: SA is literally burning, but we have the wrong people at the stake
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