Seeking more pay for what?

2026-03-27 - 06:20

We’re coming up to the time of year – I call it the “champagne time” – when Johannesburg is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Champagne because, as the temperature falls and autumn prepares the stage for the arrival of winter, the city sparkles like a glass of chilled bubbly. Early mornings are fresh and clear and, as the leaves slowly take on their changing season hue, Joburg sends out a challenge: beat this. And, let’s be honest, put the moans aside and admit that, apart from ideal climate, Joburg is home to people who don’t hang around, they get things done. Well, not all Joburg people. There may be some decent, hard-working, honest and competent people in the municipal structures, but they are clearly outnumbered by those who couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery. I really didn’t want to be “That Guy”... the one smirking from afar at the ongoing slow-motion collapse of Joburg. And I am certainly not taking comfort from the ongoing slow-motion implosion of the place I called home for 35 years. Looking at the picture of the protesting SA Municipal Workers Union on our front page today, I think it sums up what many people, ratepayers, think: more pay for what? As it is, the proposed R10.3 billion for their pay hike will have to come out of other municipal budgets and so another “service” will fall even further behind. Some in Joburg said I was mad moving to Knysna. It was falling apart, they said. There was no water, they said. In the four months we’ve been here, we haven’t had our water supply interrupted. There are stringent water restrictions in place and we try to do our bit (I can shower in half a bucket of water – I know this because I collect the water for use in the garden). We’ve also not had one power failure. I am still on a City Power WhatsApp group and our area in Joburg has had eight blackouts since we left. But I really feel sorry for those left who are dealing with the absolute chaos, which is the City of Joburg’s billing system. When I wrote last year about City Power wasting resources on social media plugs for itself while billing customers like us outrageously incorrect amounts, I drew the ire of spokesperson Isaac Mangena. To his credit, he looked into things and found we were being charged based on estimates, even though City Power had installed a “smart” meter. Problem was – they never read it. An ad agency guy I follow on social media recently bought a house in Joburg, filled in all the forms to open an account and was told it would take a few months. Two weeks later, without notice, his electricity was cut off... because he hadn’t paid his non-existent account. I thought things had changed last year when our house sale transfer went through, on the back of a city rates and account clearance. If you don’t have one, you’ll wait ages. In January, I was gobsmacked when I got a “rates refund” from the city deposited into my account. Last week, though, the city continued to mail us bills. How, other than incompetence of the most gross kind, is this possible? Local Government Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa was spot-on a few days ago when he warned that the collapse of metros like Joburg will take down the whole country. Someone in the Union Buildings should start paying attention and declare a state of national disaster and put all our cities under administration.