During his visit to Johannesburg this week to assess its readiness to host the G20 summit later this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his unhappiness at the city’s decaying state.
Addressing the city council’s leadership on the second day of his visit, Ramaphosa enumerated the challenges faced by South Africa’s commercial hub and its biggest city. These ranged from failing infrastructure, misgovernance and poor service delivery. Together with rampant crime, potholes and dysfunctional street lights, this is a story with which Johannesburg’s citizens are well acquainted. It is a reality they live every day of their lives.
In a sense, Ramaphosa was right when he said “Johannesburg’s success is the nation’s success”.
But while he was focusing on Johannesburg, Ramaphosa could have been talking about any of South Africa’s towns and cities — from Tshwane, to eThekwini, to Nelson Mandela Bay and Ditsobotla in North West. All of which have been allowed, through dereliction and incompetence, to fall into decrepitude in the last 30 years, negatively affecting the economy and citizens’ quality of life.
Motivated by a desire to “wow” G20 visitors, Ramaphosa proposed the establishment of a Presidential Johannesburg Working Group. On the face of it, a constructive suggestion. However, this is a temporary solution. What is long overdue is a comprehensive, long-term national strategy to bring our cities and towns back to their feet, a prerequisite for economic growth.
Such a strategy would seek to ensure the insulation of city management from changes in political leadership, made more acute by the unstable political leadership we have seen since the advent of coalition politics. In addition, a deliberate effort would have to be made to ensure that appointments to run our cities are based on suitable qualifications and competence, and not on political connections.
It is on this revival that the economic recovery of our towns and cities, and thus of the country itself, hinges — and off the back of that success, job creation and the upliftment of the living standards of citizens occurs
The biggest challenge for the authorities will be to wean themselves off the long-established culture of devising new plans, but without the political will and fortitude to carry them out, including the simple enforcement of bylaws.
Critically, as well, the rebuilding process would benefit hugely from partnerships between the government, the private sector and other interested stakeholders. For instance, such co-operation in parts of Johannesburg has proved that despite the enormity of the task, a turnaround for our cities is possible. Much can be learnt from such islands of success.
In every instance, the revival of our cities and towns will have to focus on the rehabilitation of the central business districts and inner cities, which in addition to falling into decay have been surrendered by authorities to criminality, including crime syndicates which have hijacked whole buildings. Government must lead by example by locating its offices in the CBDs.
In the process, private and corporate taxpayers have fled, together with much-needed municipal revenue.
It is on this revival that the economic recovery of our towns and cities, and thus of the country itself, hinges — and off the back of that success, job creation and the upliftment of the living standards of citizens occurs.
At the end of the day, fixing Johannesburg, as well as other towns and cities, should not only be to “wow” visitors but to also make them safe, habitable and economically productive places for all citizens.
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