{"id":838436,"date":"2025-10-01T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=838436"},"modified":"2025-10-01T15:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T13:29:10","slug":"south-africas-most-important-city-is-collapsing-in-front-of-everyones-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/838436\/south-africas-most-important-city-is-collapsing-in-front-of-everyones-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s most important city is collapsing in front of everyone\u2019s eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Johannesburg\u2019s water and electricity infrastructure is collapsing, with large parts of the city experiencing regular outages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city is also struggling with a decaying road network, deteriorating service levels, and dysfunctional and corrupt management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problems in Johannesburg are not new. It has reached such concerning levels that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had to step in earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2025, Ramaphosa warned officials in Johannesburg to resolve a myriad of problems dogging the city ahead of a summit of leaders from the Group of 20 nations in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe environment that one observed in Johannesburg was not a pleasing environment. I say this so that we can improve immensely,\u201d said Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president added that local officials will need to demonstrate over the coming months that he hadn\u2019t made a mistake in choosing Johannesburg as the venue for the G-20 gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said he had apologised to Ramaphosa and assured him that the provincial and local government would address Johannesburg\u2019s shortcomings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2025, Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero unveiled a high-impact implementation task force, dubbed the “bomb squad,” to address the city\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team, headed by ANC veteran Snuki Zikalala, consists of seasoned public servants brought in to rescue the metro from its current state of decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morero explained that the bomb squad\u2019s main objective was to oversee and ensure the effective implementation of the city\u2019s service delivery plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Ramaphosa\u2019s demands, Lesufi\u2019s assurances, and Morero\u2019s interventions, the city continues to battle all its old foes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2025, RISE Mzansi stated that Morero\u2019s bomb squad and the Presidential Johannesburg Working Group had failed to make any impact since their appointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morero hit back, saying claims that these initiatives were ineffective are false and an affront to the hard work being done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince its inception, the bomb squad has resolved over 1,200 service delivery hotspots across priority regions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He claimed that the bomb squad addressed issues such as pothole repairs, water leak closures, and illegal dumping sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johannesburg\u2019s collapse continues<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Many stakeholders, including residents, civil society groups, and political parties, have raised concerns that the collapse in Johannesburg is ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RISE Mzansi National Chairperson, Vuyiswa Ramokgopa, said the decay of Johannesburg is the direct result of uncaring and negligent politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cService delivery cannot be switched on only when foreign dignitaries visit. It must be the daily reality for ratepayers and residents who keep this city afloat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DA Spokesperson on Water and Sanitation, Stephen Moore, claimed that Morero has no plan to resolve Johannesburg\u2019s water crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter failing on his promise to restore water in 7 days, Morero\u2019s presentation before the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation proves he is unfit to be mayor,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMorero had no answer to the R4 billion defunded from Joburg Water, bringing maintenance projects to a halt, causing the current crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toby Chance, DA Spokesperson on Trade, Industry, and Competition, stated that industrial parks in Johannesburg have become job killers, rather than job creators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gauteng government and City of Johannesburg are slowly killing the businesses that operate there, rather than making it easier for them to grow and create jobs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Power Johannesburg is experiencing widespread electricity problems due to a combination of infrastructure issues and widespread illegal connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also a lack of payment for services, as well as ongoing issues with maintenance and repairs. City Power is also dogged by corruption and mismanagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, the Hawks raided Joburg City Power’s headquarters, seeking details about a questionable R67 million contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is only one of many investigations related to City Power, which also has a long-running dispute with Eskom over payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents have also pointed to broken roads, potholes, deteriorating bridges, and traffic lights that are out because of vandalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crime is also out of control. Gang violence in some southern parts of Johannesburg has increased, with many casualties reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Johannesburg inner city is also extremely dangerous, with hijacked buildings, overcrowding, theft, and vandalism becoming commonplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Joburg Community Action Network (JoburgCAN)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Dada Morero<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Joburg Community Action Network (JoburgCAN) said Morero\u2019s 2025 State of the City Address lacked credible plans, timelines, or consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His poor leadership, the civil group argued, leave Johannesburg residents with more promises and no delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OUTA executive Julius Kleynhans said the living experience of residents and businesses in the City of Johannesburg continues to deteriorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes water outages, unreliable electricity supply, uncollected waste, crumbling roads, and traffic chaos. \u201cThis is systemic failure, not just a service glitch,\u201d Kleynhans said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Morero conceded to widespread failures, there is an absence of detailed plans, clear timelines, budget allocations, and performance targets to reverse the decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResidents are fed up. Projects stall halfway, billing systems remain broken, and administrative bloat delivers very little. The failure to fix the basics signals a city in paralysis,\u201d Kleynhans said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JoburgCAN Regional Manager Julia Fish said water outages are daily disruptions, and illegal dumping sites are multiplying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRoads are dangerous. Traffic lights don\u2019t work. People are tired of watching their city deteriorate,\u201d Fish said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They said the root causes of Johannesburg\u2019s collapse include unstable coalitions, executive turnover, and cadre deployment that favours loyalty over competence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Johannesburg water photos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Johannesburg road network photos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Johannesburg industrial park<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Johannesburg general photos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johannesburg\u2019s water and electricity infrastructure is collapsing, with large parts of the city experiencing regular outages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":784025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[7376,23694,1293,20394,1996,22493,23692,19491,23691,23693,21982],"class_list":["post-838436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-city-power","tag-city-power-johannesburg","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-dada-morero","tag-johannesburg","tag-johannesburg-mayor-dada-morero","tag-presidential-johannesburg-working-group","tag-rise-mzansi","tag-snuki-zikalala","tag-stephen-moore","tag-toby-chance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838451,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838436\/revisions\/838451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}