Dear Mayor Dada Morero,
I write to you as a resident of Johannesburg who can no longer remain silent while our once-great city collapses into ruin. The City of Johannesburg’s website proudly proclaims: “Joburg — a world-class African city." That may have been true 20 years ago. Sadly, it no longer is.
On Saturday July 4, my wife and I sat in the relative comfort of a bus ferrying supporters to a world-class rugby match between the Springboks and England at Ellis Park. Yet as we travelled through the suburbs surrounding the stadium, the horror of the real Johannesburg unfolded before our eyes.
Even President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his displeasure in March 2025 at the visible decay of the city centre. Given how often he appears to be shocked by events in this country, he must be even more shocked just over a year later.
In response, you appointed a much-publicised “bomb squad” — a multidisciplinary, volunteer advisory team supposedly tasked with accelerating service delivery, tackling crime and cutting red tape. Yet by all appearances, your bomb squad detonated and demolished rather than rebuilt.
Under the ANC, the “world-class African city” has been reduced to a world-class cesspool of filth, destruction and decay — with an overwhelming stench of rot that now defines both our streets and your administration.
This collapse is neither an accidental misfortune nor a temporary setback. It is the predictable outcome of years of political mismanagement, cadre deployment and systematic plunder by your comrades, cadres and connected cohorts
The evidence is inescapable. In neighbourhoods like those around Ellis Park and across our suburbs and townships, Pikitup routinely fails to honour its basic weekly refuse-collection schedule. Bins overflow for weeks, rubbish piles up in heaps and the foul odour of decaying waste permeates the air.
The Johannesburg Roads Agency has failed us, as potholes have become the norm rather than the exception — deep, tyre- and car-damaging craters that turn every road into an obstacle course and a hazard.
Precious water leaks endlessly from burst pipes while residents face shortages with Johannesburg Water in charge. Meanwhile, City Power has allowed Johannesburg’s electrical infrastructure to deteriorate at a blistering pace, with frequent outages, collapsing substations and cable theft plunging entire neighbourhoods into darkness on a regular basis.
Municipal teams dig up roads and expose pipes for repairs, only to abandon the sites for weeks or even months. Open trenches remain unfenced and unmarked, creating deadly hazards for drivers and pedestrians. These are yet another symbol of a city where even the most basic maintenance descends into chaos and neglect. And you are the political leader reigning over this mess.
Our once-proud parks and green spaces stand dilapidated, with City Parks as the responsible entity: overgrown with weeds, vandalised, littered with refuse and stripped of any semblance of beauty or safety.
You are the mayor of this city, and this collapse is neither an accidental misfortune nor a temporary setback. It is the predictable outcome of years of political mismanagement, cadre deployment and systematic plunder by your comrades, cadres and connected cohorts.
The physical filth choking our city is merely the outward symptom of the deeper moral and administrative rot within the City of Johannesburg
All of the above-mentioned entities fall directly under your control, yet instead of fulfilling their mandates to deliver basic services, they have been reduced to vehicles for employing cadres, advancing political loyalty and enabling large-scale plunder.
To add insult to injury, the National Treasury last Tuesday invoked emergency constitutional powers and withheld the July grant payments to more than 60 municipalities, including the City of Johannesburg. After years of offering guidance, training and repeated warnings, the Treasury has now been forced to act — a damning indictment of your leadership.
The physical filth choking our city is merely the outward symptom of the deeper moral and administrative rot within the City of Johannesburg. You and your allies have squandered the goodwill of ordinary residents — the ratepayers, workers, families and business owners — who continued to believe, pay their bills and endure in the hope of better days. That patience is now exhausted.
On November 4 this country holds local government elections. As Oliver Cromwell declared to a failed and self-serving English parliament in 1653: “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing … In the name of God, go!”
Mr Mayor, the time for speeches, excuses, coalition games and empty promises is over. If your party does not remove you soon, the voters of Johannesburg and its fed-up residents most certainly will.
This is not written from a place of privilege, nor from a so-called “white perspective” or colonial mindset — accusations routinely used to deflect legitimate criticism and shift blame. It is written from a place of deep concern and heartfelt observation of what has become of our city and how this decline painfully affects every resident — black and white, rich and poor — who calls Johannesburg home.
- Bosman is chief secretary of the Afrikanerbond but writes in his personal capacity as a concerned resident
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