Potholes. Traffic lights. City Power. Jozi remains a mess
In August 2016, the DA won Johannesburg on the promise of better governance and efficiency. Herman Mashaba was plucked from his life as an entrepreneur to run the city on business principles, the first significant business leader to become a politician. Later, Cyril Ramaphosa would become president of the country. By “business principles”, I took the party to mean that Johannesburg would be better run and that would stimulate growth and productivity. As it accounts for such a large percentage of national GDP, it is not a big stretch to see how an efficiently run Johannesburg could make for a better South Africa. Two years on, and evidence of success is sparse. As a hard-working and productive citizen, I expected this promise of better governance to be expressed as fewer potholes, call centres where agents answer the phones quickly and politely, fewer outages and traffic lights that work. In a country of such gross wealth inequality, deep poverty and disabling joblessness, you can be laughed away as a whining middle-class brat if you complain about potholes, call centres and traffic lights, but hear me out for a moment.
The tax-paying middle class is not an elite that squirrels away its money in offshore havens. No, we pay a lot in tax, rates, electricity tariffs and the double taxation of forking out for our own security, education and health. A badly run city is an additional tax. Here’s how.
The potholes are costly — ask any Jozi resident with a car and they will regale you with stories of stratospheric tyre replacement costs. City Power is a serial nightmare. I’ve had occasion to deal with its call centre all through the DA administration, and, with call waiting times of an average 40 minutes before you give up and put the phone down in tears, it is no better than the administration of the ANC’s Parks Tau. It is productivity-sapping, as is sitting in its long queues at walk-in centres.
All private sector call centres I deal with, like cellphone companies, insurers and banks, have got better over the years, with call times reduced and performance measures in place. In the public sector, we are sitting ducks to civil servants with phones that ring off the hook.
Potholes are bigger than they were because Mashaba has been in a long-running war with the Johannesburg Roads Agency. I’m not sure about you, but traffic light outages are another productivity sap. There has been no improvement in a system where basic efficiency would improve the city no end. For years we’ve needed new traffic lights, but the capital investment is never made, despite election promises.
Johannesburg makes a joke of the DA’s unique selling position that it is a party of good governance. The DA has a booklet detailing how it runs things well where it governs. The larney parts of Cape Town are certainly well run, and the booklet details how the party has improved the lives of people where it has governed. Johannesburg is the DA’s biggest test, and, two years in, its promise is not manifest in any ways that make the city more efficient for its citizens who drive the national economy.
● I’ve had quite a response to a column I wrote two weeks ago about the inefficiencies at home affairs. The department has invited me to visit its offices to hear about improvements and a new campaign called #WarOnQueues. I will attend and report back. I’ve also had feedback from readers who say that using the banks’ partnership with home affairs to get passports and smart IDs works much more efficiently than using home affairs offices. I used home affairs in Randburg. Here’s the good news. My passport application was approved, and my new passport was ready in under two weeks. Here’s the bad news. When I went to collect it, the queue snaked long and slow. After a long wait, an official came out saying he was “chopping the queue” ahead of those of us near the back. This was two hours before closing time. “At 4pm, I’m going home and I don’t want you to still be standing here,” he told us. That manager is a guy gripped by the spirit of batho pele, which is meant to be a civil servant’s guiding mantra.
Joburg makes a joke of the DA’s unique selling position that it’s a party of good governance