MARK BARNES: Separate politics from action plans to fix Johannesburg

Differences of allegiance and opinion and other peaceful coexisting privileges have to wait when primal needs are not being met. Normal rules can apply only when things are “normal”, and that’s not the case across the board in SA. Abnormal is close and real enough to be felt in the everyday existence of all but a few.

Johannesburg is a case in point, but it’s certainly not alone. It won’t take more “business as we do it now” to fix it. Some boundaries and bad habits are going to have to be broken, then replaced. Polite acquiescence must wait in line. Order will have to emerge out of chaos. First we must clear away the mess though; cut away any contamination. 

A spiral of decay can be halted only with deliberate, forensic-like attention to detail and immediate interventions with enthusiasm bordering on force. A service delivery state of emergency, if you like, but far wider than that, to address the full spectrum of problems that are turning our once functional cities into a web of slums. A change of mindset, a different attitude, deep diagnosis, a plan. 

Start with the right leader and a team of capable, pragmatic, fit-for-purpose, professional individuals. In rugby parlance, we need to bring on the “bomb squad” at the start of the game, not just to wrap up the result in the last quarter. Take as long as it needs to get the mandate and authority boundaries clear (and enforceable) and define the endgame — then let the team get on with it on the ground, under adequate air cover. 

Start at the epicentre of infected areas, not at the easy edges. Go to the core and fix that completely. Walk a straight line and don’t indulge any exceptions. Operation Inner City must leave no infections untreated.

Once the baddies (and their networks) have been removed, the good people must be moved in, in their numbers. Make it worth their while through incentives — like attractive funding deals for property and across-the-board mixed-use invitations to residents and developers. Grant businesses licences without delays and promote infrastructure upgrading and you’ll get an island of functional coexistence, something worth preserving.

Then protect it for the new, vested-interest, inner-city dwellers. Expand this new way of life incrementally, block by block, with measured progress. A virtuous creep, driven and monitored by local resident community leaders, secured by state force and legislature. Remove everything that stands in the way of immediate action.

Enforce the law. Delegate zero-tolerance authority for dealing with mafia of any description. Make personal safety sacrosanct. Use technology to aid oversight. Require that all service delivery deals be done with track-record competence and at fair market value; grant power of veto to independent experts (replacing the corrupt tender system). Declare invalid and cancel all existing illegal contracts. Devolve full and final judicial authority to municipal level for selected misdemeanours.

Only then will the road be clear to develop the capital allocation capacity and project prioritisation skills necessary to address solutions to personal, primal needs and acceptable service delivery standards. Then it’s time to grow — initial success will increase degrees of freedom and latitude for innovation and growth, enabled by outcome-based remuneration structures in municipalities. 

Don’t waste time waiting for the next municipal elections. By then we could already have evidence of what works and what can actually be done. We won’t need to listen to or tolerate another litter of unkept promises and unrealistic manifestos. We’ll know, and we’ll vote for the deliverers. 

We could create an enabling environment for a new order with a solid foundation to build on within the next 18 months, but only if we separate the politics from the action plans and sort out the thugs. That will require common purpose and personal pride, but I think we’re in enough trouble to realise we’d better hold hands and get on with it.

• Barnes is an investment banker with more than 35 years’ experience in various capacities in the financial sector.