Joburg’s ‘world-class city’ claim rings hollow

We would bet that the average ratepayer, sitting in the dark – because City Power has failed to keep the lights on, again – and contemplating a damaged car rim after an adventure with a Joburg pothole, listening to water gush from a weeks-old burst pipe in the road outside, would snort with derision at Johannesburg’s claim to be a “world-class city.”

Even President Cyril Ramaphosa – who barely notices anything – was moved to tell the bosses of the City of Joburg recently they should get their act together before the important guests arrive for the G20 summit later this year.

But, if you want a symbol of how far the City of Gold had tumbled into the cesspit of failure, you need look no further than the imposing Metro Centre building in Braamfontein.

It has been closed since December because it is unsafe for human habitation.

People in world-class cities around the globe would be gobsmacked by this state of affairs, considering the building is a spring chicken, having been completed less than 50 years ago.

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The reason for the collapse is obvious: the politicians and officials running our city have been too busy with other things – which may or may not have included feathering their own nests – to have paid attention to the golden rule of infrastructure… that any form of physical structure is only as good as its maintenance.

And, clearly, Joburg’s bosses have believed for years that particular chicken would never come home to roost.

Not only has reality arrived, but our municipal fathers and mothers have made it far worse by just walking away from the building and leaving behind valuable assets to rot, including furniture and even office equipment, for which rentals are still being paid.

Failure class city, more like it.

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