Broken Joburg metro can be rescued

Is Joburg the worst-run metro in Gauteng? Every week, I sit with residents whose lives are made harder by the collapse of our city.

- BELINDA KAYSER-ECHEOZONJOKU

A grandmother in Lenasia tells me she has gone days without water.

A small business owner in Bramley shows me stock lost because of constant power cuts.

A young man in Berea asks how he is meant to find work when hijacked buildings and crime make his community unsafe.

For too many, Johannesburg no longer feels like the city of opportunity. With eight mayors in five years, it has become the most unstable metro in Gauteng—and possibly the worst-run.

Services have collapsed, leadership is absent and maladministration has left residents paying the price. Last year alone, the ANC-led coalition accumulated R12.7 billion in debt in a single financial cycle.