I decided to leave the comfort of suburban Pretoria where I live and the luxurious environment of Bedfordview where I work and venture into the deepest recesses of Johannesburg, to look at the buildings, see the people and experience their daily life.
Paddy Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com
The last time I had done so was about 18 months ago when I went on a carefully orchestrated trip to see the streetlights of Braamfontein and Hillbrow. Sure, they pointed out that some of the buildings were in pretty poor shape but emphasised that the city was working to clean itself up.
And, of course, there was a very serious effort to clean up the city ahead of this year’s World Cup when Johannesburg would be on show.
Well, today’s trip was not orchestrated.
I drove into town and then did a big loop from Commissioner Street in the south to Park Station in the north, going up Sauer Street, past Luthuli House and then coming back down Harrison Street into the centre of the city before turning east to head out of town first along Market Street, then President until I was back in the unsightly neighbourhoods of Jeppe and Malvern.
And I’m convinced, more than ever before, that Johannesburg today is a city in chaos. It is filthy, it is teeming with lawless drivers – not just taxi drivers, but truck, bus and passenger vehicle drivers – and its inner-city buildings are rapidly decaying and many of them should be condemned.
A parkade near the station is a burnt-out hulk with bits of plaster in danger of dropping under the peaceful folk walking beneath its parapets. In Harrison Street, a 15 storey, face-brick building is occupied but how people are living there is beyond me. Windows are broken, parts of the building are crumbling and the balconies are not even properly secured.
Inside the building there is evidence of filth and moral decay as well. Services don’t work and the lifts are broken. I pass derelict building after derelict building, many of them showing signs of extensive fire damage. Some of them boarded up, others simply deserted.
Along the way, there are those marvellous old properties such as the Dawson Hotel with its Frothing Goblet pub that is completely boarded up, the front doors secured by solid steel gates.
Wherever you move your gaze, you find degeneration.
And I ask myself: “Where is this inner city regeneration? Where are the revitalisation projects? Where are the cleaners, the building inspectors, the metropolitan police?”
I can’t answer my own questions.
There are some small signs that things might be changing: the old Post Office building in Rissik Street has been gutted but the façade has remained, so maybe, just maybe it will be returned to former architectural splendour.
The same can’t be said for the headquarters of the Gauteng Legislature, though, as this building looks even more run-down now than it did several years ago. And Luthuli House looks decrepit, grubby and unloved too.
The Reay Vaya bus service – which appears to be running smoothly – has achieved one thing (apart from carrying people around the city). It has created even more opportunities for lawless drivers to break the rules of the road.
Now driver can take short cuts over the verges for demarcated bus lanes. They hare down the road, push in to the lanes for ordinary cars and trucks and do so before being spotted by the metro police.
Why? Because there are no metro police in sight
In fact in two-and-a-half hours of driving through the central city, I did not see a single metro police officer or a patrol car. They’d all evidently left the city and its lawlessness to head for the more disciplined suburbs where they could ticket people for speeding on Jan Smuts Avenue or along Malibongwe Drive.
So the central city’s intersections were blocked by all and sundry, completely oblivious to red robots. And every road I turned into had steady streams of illegal parkers who had just stopped where they felt like it and let the drivers and cars find a way around.
I found myself thinking: “So much for the world-class city, so much for the whole inner-city regeneration campaigns, so much for the money that’s being poured into improving the city’s infrastructure and its ability to function.”
“It’s just a lot of political hogwash,” I found myself mumbling irritably as, for the second time a robot changed from green to red and I had not ventured one inch closer to getting out of the city.
Right now the city is failing itself – and people in the city are as responsible for this failure as the city administrators and legislators are too.
It made me think about all the promises that have been made to the residents of Johannesburg. Promises from councillors to clean up the city, improve Johannesburg and turn it into a world-class environment.
And I think of all the money that just keeps rolling in to the city’s coffers from diligent ratepayers and consumers who pay on their account even though they haven’t been billed.
As I was driving through this city, it struck me that instead of fixing things, the city itself is helping to destroy them.
The city administrators are not doing their jobs and the derelict and dangerous building illustrates this quite clearly too; the metropolitan police aren’t doing their jobs, the lawlessness proves this; the lack of major retail stores show how little confidence the private sector has in central Johannesburg that is now home to street-sellers, sidewalk retailers and no-name-brand stores selling cheap Chinese clothes.
The more I drove through the central city the more I found myself thinking back on my recent trips to Lagos and remembering the chaos that that the city faces. And, I wondered how long it would be before Johannesburg was in exactly the same state.
Not long, I guess, judging by what I saw today.
And certainly not long unless there is some high-level intervention, some huge investments in its properties and some determination to bring the rule of law back into the central city.
Would I buy a property in central Johannesburg today? Not on your nelly.
*Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com. The content of his columns constitutes his personal opinion and doesn’t pretend to be facts or advice. Contact him at paddy@neomail.co.za.
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Its very sad to see the city in this state of decay, Im too scared to even go there even though im also black. i think the govenment etc can only do so much but people need to take responsibility. I see black people peeing in the street, spiting and throwing rubbish even though there are facilities for that. Then you will find them pushing and shoving one another with no respect or regard for the next person. and the roads well they seem to be alergic to pavements, you find people walking in the middle of the road ignoring the pavements completely now the cars have to move for them. Im not xenophobic but find that the city is full of foreigners and they dont care what they do in the city since its not their country. You find 20 people staying in a bachelor flat completely overloading the infrastructure and not even caring about their own hygiene. Since i am Zulu/Xhosa speaking i know when i hear a foreigner speaking and every 0.5 person in the inner city is not South African. There is a saying in my culture that says, "dont give your treasured possession to anyone because they will never take care of it since its not theirs and they have no respect/love for it as you do". Its disgusting and embassing to all of us African. - Norah
Johannesburg has been like this for years and the Wriet of the article did not see the East Side of Joubert Park where the old Mines Benifit Society had a Hospital. My son used to be a Lift Technician in the area and I for one would not ride in any lift as they are not maintained and Safety circuits are bridged out.
What else can be expected from a Third World City. - Robert
I found your observations regarding Central Johannesburg most enlightening. Now in my early eighties I can recall as if it was yesterday when I came to stay in a small hotel in downtown Delvers Street, in the 'fifties. I stayed there for fifteen months and since I worked in Sauer Street, walked about twelve blocks four times daily, without a care in the world. Similarly for the cinemas of an evening and the Cathedral on a Sunday. In the middle of the night the drains were cleaned with pressure hoses, there was no paid parking and I can never recall a sense of fear. If need be, the authority of the LAW must be brutally applied, without fear or favour, and its citizens must accept that this is the price to be paid for security and for the support of the law-abiding. Too many municipal and State Laws go in default and the problems compound when left unattended, to be exploited by the unscrupulous. As the quality of life declines you cannot blame those that suffer from seeking to flee the orbit of filth, depravity and personal danger which intrudes on a daily basis. Our law-makers and administrators are primarily responsible to the electorate for this state of affairs and there really isn't a valid excuse for the decay which impacts on our national image and, in turn, on our national morale - Ray Croft
My Father ran a business at 250 Anderson Street for 43 years. This is just outside the city core. When he passed away in 2003 the property was valued at R60000. The only offer was for R25000. Today it lies empty boarded up and that area which used to be a hive of activity when I was growing up is now an abject slum. The property is worthless and is probably infested with squatters. I live in Melbourne now and in any "world class city" a property in that position would be worth a small fortune. I am sorry to say but having had first hand experience of property in the city your advice to steer clear is admirable. It would be impossible to revitalise the city. It will be another" Lagos" sooner than one thinks. How I think back to the days when as a boy I used to visit the city in a suit and tie and marvel at the first world architecture and shops, theaters and movie houses. Those days are far gone never to return. How Sad. - From Memories of Joburg
I have no idea who this "reasonable source" is, but take it from me he's talking unadulterated you know what.
How anyone can draw such conclusions from a brief drive through a city is beyond me. How he has the nerve, not to mention stupidity, to think that half an hour's observation from the driver's seat of his car is sufficient homework from which to make such sweeping generalisations, is equally hard to comprehend. What's next - an accurate assessment of the state of London from the viewpoint of one lap on the Circle Line?
I have spent a lot of time in the Joburg CBD and environs lately, trying to find a flat to buy for my housekeeper. There's no shortage of flats, just none for sale because as soon as they hit the market they're sold, to businesspeople, to students, to property speculators. Decaying office blocks are being converted into excellent residential accommodation at an impressive rate - but still not fast enough for market demand. R350K for a bedsit in Braamfontein sounds like a price you could negotiate downwards. No chance!
I've spent time there also for business reasons. One place that has always epitomised the state of Joburg is the Carlton Centre. Since it was bought by Transnet it has been transformed - safe, clean, efficient and vibrant. One (the only) thing that I would agree with in our doom merchant's piece is that retail brands reflect the commercial strength of an area. Go visit the Carlton Centre - and checkout the national retail brands doing good business there. Go check out Braamfontein - a new Pick n Pay on the main street, near the Spur. Never was a Pick n Pay in Braamies when I worked there in the supposed good old days.
I've spent time in the CBD for recreational reasons too (not that kind). Arts on Main is a fabulous development that has attracted the likes of William Kentridge and the Goodman Gallery to set up shop there. Or Newtown - the Bassline, Carfax and any number of interesting cafes and restaurants. Not to mention Museum Africa, or SAB's World of Beer.
I could go on - new residential and office developments around the Newtown Mills, brand new business hotels opening up in town (see Saturday's Star, if you don't believe me), great new mixed use centres like 44 Stanley Ave in Auckland Park, large scale "street art" installations, and so on...
Sure, there is still a shedload of problems, and some areas are certainly less than salubrious. But is that unexpected? Do I condemn our friend's "comfortable" Pretoria and "luxurious" Bedfordview because the former houses racist kids who kick vagrants to death, and the latter can count the likes of the late Lolly Jackson as an example of its citizenry? What possible purpose is served by slagging off a city on the basis of one brief visit, which surely was made to confirm existing prejudices? How about some constructive commentary for once? Don't believe everything you read online. A lot of it is pathetic. - Andy