Shane Abrahams: A city rapidly in decline, with politicians more concerned about self-preservation than the needs of the communities they serve. Regrettably, ‘World Class’ and ‘African City’ cannot be used in the same sentence as our city falls short of either. Absolutely poor...
Northcliff Melville Times asked residents across our footprint a simple question: Is Johannesburg a world-class African city?
Here is what they had to say:
Joan Ferreira: We, the citizens/ residents of Johannesburg are essentially voiceless, being held hostage, helpless in the face of the rot. There is not a single city department delivering on their mandate. JMPD turns a blind eye to blatant disregard of our by-laws, our roads are breaking up with stormwater drains clogged and grass and weeds growing on verges now encroaching metres into our roads, our parks choking as alien invasives take over, our water infrastructure disintegrating and when repQuinton Woodington: I feel like the government is giving us poor service delivery because every now and then there is no water. Even the roads have potholes, I don’t think the money that is supposed to fix these issues is used. I don’t even know where the money goes because even the government grant of R350 is not enough. I don’t know where the money goes because I believe we all pay tax when we buy items from shops tax is included in the price. But the is no improvement in South Africa.Anna du Plessis: There is no world class in this African City – only Africa. It is heartbreaking to see our beautiful area falling to pieces day by day. Infrastructure is close to non-existent. Our sidewalks look like bushes, and the list goes on…Jenny Scott: It amazes me how we have had water shortages for nine days but on every road you drive down there is a water leak! When Johannesburg Water digs a hole to fix a leak, the hole stays open for months on end. Potholes/dongas/mini pools grow by the day, both in size and number! Between the water leaks and potholes, we will soon drown before getting to our destination.Thina Sofaslahlane: I certainly wouldn’t call my city a world-class African city because we are still plagued by load-shedding, water-shedding or whatever that is because there is more water than land on the planet but somehow we have water outages The roads are not being maintained and nothing has changed for perhaps the past five years and really, it’s time for a change.Kgotso Mphokane: We are a world-class African city but we are not treated as such, We say we are united but no one is united. We have the resources, we have everything it’s just how we are using it and the people we give these resources to. I don’t want to say things were better when apartheid was here but look at how the government took care of the city the only problem is that we were being oppressed.Elma Potgieter: Definitely not ‘world class’ in any sense of the word – on a downward spiral since 2008, except for Pikitup.The lack of dependable basic services has become a sad ‘way of life’… Yes, ‘sad’. The situation has a depressing effect on everybody.Ferial Adam: On the one hand we do have things that make us a really exciting and beautiful city to live in. We have people from all over Africa and the world who have added to the rich diversity of Johannesburg, including the arts, music, theatre, and cuisine. There are of course things that are a concern for me – the high levels of pollution in our rivers, the extreme gap between rich and poor, security and a failing local government. We lack the political maturity to build a united, healthy aEmerencia Smith: The city always cuts grass and tree branches for visibility but does not do that anymore because ratepayers have to do it, and the same happens when main sewerage drains become blocked – the municipality should do it but they don’t.Sipke de Vries: The suggestion that Johannesburg is a world-class African City is a fallacy. It is merely an ordinary African city with a failing infrastructure such as repeated power cuts, water cuts and irregular garbage removal and this is one of the city’s top suburbs – Northcliff and a dysfunctional administration.Fanie Terblanche: This so-called world-class African city has become an absolute joke. They arbitrarily increased my property value by ±30% last year, so they could get more property tax, while not fixing potholes, not fixing substations, and don’t even talk about the water situation. What an embarrassment to South Africa!Michael Bezuidenhout: I have had the experience of living in a so-called world-class country where I’ve witnessed a continual decline in government and society in general since 1994. I have had continual problems with a temporary electrical connection backdating for at least four years. I still to date have insufficient power to my house. I have lost on three occasions all the food in my fridge and freezer due to no power for at least seven days at a time. This is a third-world country, not aJohn Cooper: I have been struggling with an underground main cable since May 2023. There is no such thing as service delivery in Johannesburg.Irene Omba: The service is bad and it’s affecting us badly since we are working at salons and use water and electricity daily. Before they used to notify us or send us water but now they don’t and we don’t have any backups and generators so our businesses are affected and failing badly because of poor service delivery. So no, I don’t think the city is anywhere near a world-class city.Godfrey Giles: Sewage leaking in Albert’s Farm takes days to be attended to. This is a health hazard as people walk through it and it ends up in the start of our river systems. By-laws are broken and reported to JMPD but nothing happens, for example, swimming and nudity at Albert’s Farm. JRA does not have a standard for speed bumps as some slow cars down to 5 km/h. These are meant to be traffic-calming measures to 40km/h. JMPD has now allowed trained residents to direct traffic how about trainConstant van Deventer: World-Class African City is a myth conjured up by the ruling party to be used in a State of the City address to make themselves look good They are an absolute train wreck and an embarrassment to every world-class rate-paying resident in Johannesburg. Neglect, incompetence, entitlement and chaos all around us. Not a pretty picture at all. Just look and see.Kulani Mkansi: The electricity is definitely hard because of load-shedding. It’s still up and down but now we also have been having a shortage of water in the reservoir – those are the only two things that I have been seeing. They do give us warnings beforehand but they are not always accurate. Three days without water is a lot.Louise Grenfell: Since July last year, I have consistently been billed for 20, 30 or even 40 000 litres of water per month. There are no leaks, so I was paying for high-pressure air. My partner and myself shower in 2.5 litres of water, and hardly ever put the geyser on. At the same time, I was billed for the value of my property, increasing from R1 250 000 to R1 850 000, which costs me R1 000 more per month. Despite objections being made at the correct time, I still have to pay this exorbitantSince the Government was elected in 1994, in Johannesburg in particular, since the last municipal elections we have gone from living in a world-class African city to living in a world-class dump. One tiny example, Westdene no longer has a bus service, yet the piece of land where the bus used to turn at the end of Ayr Road still belongs to the council, but is not maintained by them, and has become a site for illegal dumping and daily littering, a toilet for Uber drivers that lounge there and isRobert Vorstman: Service delivery has unfortunately not improved in the past decade with challenges in each sector. It feels like we pay for a service but don’t even receive the basics and then have to pay additional or do it ourselves to get anything done. Service has failed the people.Felix Obasi: Yeah, the water-shedding is the only thing that I would say is affecting me because I have to now drive from here all the way to Auckland Park just to get water. At least I know that when I go there I can come back with water. There is a place with a borehole but we are sometimes stopped from getting water because it is not connected to Johannesburg Water.Mduduzi Zwane: In my opinion, we are still far from becoming a world-class African city because we can’t even get basic service delivery because we have load-shedding, water-shedding and potholes. They are eating money. It’s a mess; we are too far. The government still needs to make a lot of improvements and take care of the city, providing basic needs for community members.Len Brinkman: It would be an outright lie if anyone claims we can call Johannesburg a ‘world-class city’. Possibly, only if we compare our current infrastructure to the 17th century.Thandokazi Bafo: I don’t think Johannesburg is yet a world-class African city or even close to that. Firstly, Johannesburg is dirty; there is rubbish on every corner and street. The drains are not working and when it rains there are floods everywhere. Where I stay we sometimes go days without water and electricity, so I think the service is bad.Alex-Smit Stachowski: I would like to thank the Pikitup team for always collecting our rubbish with a smile. When the pandemic started, they were the only people we saw for months. Since then, every Tuesday, I always give a small thank you sliced fresh fruit donation to the team for a bit of healthy goodness. The men and sometimes women of Pikitup have a hard job but don’t complain and take our rubbish away. Thank you, Pikitup!Sanchez Makaka: For me, roads are okay. But when it comes to water and electricity it is bad. We have been having load-shedding and water-shedding but they don’t even communicate or notify us prior that we will be without water for three days or without electricity for a week. So I think Johannesburg is not yet a world-class African city; we still have many issues with services from the city.Jade Breust: How about a world-class African city that only works for the corrupt bullies that run it rather than those who have their constitutional rights taken away so a select few can benefit from the system they have manipulated to suit their selfish greed? I’m talking about the Fairland dump. Only a handful are having their property values increase yet the excuse is that the dump caused the vagrants. The dump has been closed for a year and yet the vagrants are still there but other peopleMariana Fourie: I have been trying to sort out a utility bill for the past few years. It has resulted in no success after many personal visits to the City of Johannesburg. I tried to explain that there is a non-existent water meter on my account with monthly accumulating amounts.Thato Mphokane: In my honest opinion I would say yes, back in the day, but as time passed things have changed. There are lots of people running corruption all over and I feel like everybody is just thinking of themselves. I mean look at our government, they are taking everything for themselves.D Bentley: Restraint is the operative word. I loved living here from 1989 to approximately 2005 – it’s gone downhill from then. Now it is a daily challenge to hide my disgust for the unstoppable decay of this former beaurty.Clint Hill: Our city is broken with residents taking on the jobs that we already payat tax for. We have to contract private service providers to do their jobs.
