Williams Saw Hope in Jozi

In one of his last columns for The Citizen before his tragic passing last week, DA councillor Martin Williams—one of our past editors—identified a sense of hope, rather than despair, for the future of Johannesburg.

- Brendan Seery

After watching an energetic team from Joburg Water dealing with a burst main in his ward, Williams wrote: "Things were happening. There was a buzz. Such energy can be constructively harnessed and directed to help ensure things get done..."

Yet, around the same time, our writer Hein Kaiser, who lives in Benoni, was full of praise for an Ekurhuleni municipality which at least appears to be trying to deliver services. The East Rand is definitely better than the City of Gold was his opinion.

Perhaps it's just the optimism of spring, but I got a glimpse of those green shoots of municipal hope recently myself...and it left me wondering if it really is Joburg's destiny to continue on a downward spiral.

I was contacted by City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena after I wrote a column awarding the utility an Onion for squandering money by producing videos speaking about how wonderfully well its system maintenance was going.