A VIEW OF THE WEEK: Look out below! We live in cities stolen piece by piece

There is something sad about visiting your hometown. A decade since you rode those familiar roads and yet the potholes, chopped-down street lights and broken robots resemble more a post-apocalypse scene than a passage of sweet memories.

This town could be one of the hundreds across South Africa where governance has collapsed and the city is being stolen piece by piece.

This week, suspected cable theft sparked a fire under the heart of Johannesburg. The City of Gold and Prosperity became a literal smoke screen as dark clouds reached to the sky.

To make matters worse, just hours later police had to exchange fire with criminals living in a makeshift squatter camp near the scene of the fire after they were found busy trying to steal the cable that got burnt during the blaze.

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A metro that houses high walls, and where blue lights regularly light up the night sky like fireworks had shown its soft underbelly.

A stark reminder that brazen criminals run our stolen cities.

Cities stolen below

Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda talked tough against crime, vandalism and illegal mining in his State of the City address on Thursday. But for all his promises, it was the fears he shared that were the most telling.

He warned that if not curbed, criminality would continue to burrow further underground, destroying the foundations of roads, rails and bridges.

Water would be polluted and sinkholes would become more commonplace. The city would be forever trying to catch up to criminals.

Politicians with morals as empty as sinkholes

A financial crisis, lack of maintenance, and unstable governance have brought us here. Led by politicians with morals as empty as a sinkhole and with about as much intelligence.

Later this month the country will head to the polls to elect national and provincial leaders. Candidates are hard at work either allegedly “purging” their party, making fun of others, or preaching their manifestos.

While we will not be casting our votes for local government representatives, these national and provincial leaders will have a say in your hometown.

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Their policies and oversight will shape what road we will be driving on as people and as a country over the next five years.

Will it be a drive to posterity or one from a nightmare?

Vote, buckle up, and let’s go for a ride!

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