On 12 June 2000, I landed at the Johannesburg International Airport (which was to be renamed OR Tambo International in 2006). I was uprooting my young family to seek better opportunities in the fabled City of Gold – eGoli. Instead of excitement, I was sad that history was repeating itself. My paternal grandfather was a medical orderly in the Belgian Congo (now DRC) during the First World War (1914-1918) and my father trekked from Nyasaland to Southern Rhodesia in 1944, then proceeded to the Union of South Africa to work in the mines.
The Johannesburg I encountered on arrival had a spring in its step – interest rates were falling, and optimism was sky-high as Thabo Mbeki aggressively pursued economic growth (daring the labour unions in the process). Culturally, night life was booming with clubs dotted all over town and restaurants were doing roaring business in Melville, Rosebank and Yeoville. The Rand bought you a decent grocery every month. It was still a dangerous city, but you felt you could navigate its hazards once you understood it. Most importantly, things worked…
Twenty-five years later, Johannesburg looks worn-out like a suit worn over three decades – threadbare with patched pants. The joie de vivre (joy of living) is gone. Let’s tell this dramatic story of decay in pictures.
The traffic lights
A few days ago, I drove from Randburg to Johannesburg CBD using major streets like Jan Smuts. I stopped counting how many traffic lights were out of order. It seemed every 200 metres had to be treated as a four-way stop.
OUTsurance to the rescue
Without the OUTsurance traffic controllers, mornings and late afternoons would be hell on earth for commuters.
For a huge city, Johannesburg does not have a functional public transport system – a legacy of apartheid and the incompetence of the class of ‘94. The train carriages are rotting away…
The potholes and the missing streetlights
It is hazardous to drive at night in Joburg due to the proliferation of potholes. The streetlights are mostly out and, in this equivalent of the Dark City, you need to have a mental map. I know all the potholes in my hood, so I deploy perfect dodging in the evening…
The potholes are humongous like this one on Jan Smuts in the Rosebank area. It has been “fixed” before (shoddily, I should add).
Just some fifty metres down, is a lovely crater by the roadside in a parking bay…
Hillbrow
Whilst it is great that the misery of dysfunctional infrastructure is shared by all – rich and poor – Hillbrow and the central business district give a dystopian feeling as if they were places that had just emerged from war. Filth, burst pipes, potholes and crumbling buildings…
Downtown Johannesburg – the CBD
A sidewalk on Rahima Moosa Street (formerly Jeppe). Rahima was a member of the Transvaal Indian Congress and played a critical role in the South African liberation movement.
The buildings in the CBD look tired like they need a hammock to lie on and remember a glorious past.
Just after the Nelson Mandela Bridge heading into Newtown an interlocking network of potholes hails you.
Like sheep, cars follow each other dancing around potholes…
The overgrowth
It is a shocking sight when you see City of Joburg staff cutting grass because below is very normal.
The simple ask
The Johannesburg Mayor, Dada Morero, says it costs over R300 000 to fix any set of traffic lights because of cable theft. It seems he is now fixing some of the infrastructure for one reason only – the G20 Summit in November 2025. Otherwise, dude couldn’t really be bothered. He has, to borrow Comrade Jonathan Moyo’s wisdom, “normalised the abnormal.”
In the education precinct of Braamfontein, business has taken upon itself to improve the area in terms security and redevelopment. They are also driven by self-interest as they have extensive property portfolio which includes their offices and it would not be easy to relocate.
Want a Fanta? No, a clean city with working lights and surfaced roads will do for a start.
Listen to the billboards Mayor Morero. Sunlight has a message for you…
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