LETTER: Tragedies occur when cities lose all their institutional knowledge
The city manager is obscenely quiet on most topics, and there is no management of the inner city, including law enforcement
06 September 2023 - 14:19
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Firefighters at the building in the Johannnesburg CBD. Picture: ANTONIO MUCHAVE
The recent tragedy in the inner city of Johannesburg, where 74 people lost their lives in a fire, can be firmly laid at the door of the city council. Some of the responses by politicians were therefore especially galling.
Social development minister Lindiwe Zulu went to the site of the tragedy and blamed it on apartheid. Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda of the Al Jama-ah party, who can barely string 10 words together without a script, told journalists: “I do not want to engage in a dialogue”.
The truth of the matter is that the phenomenon of bad buildings is not new. Back in 2000 under the leadership of the first democratically elected mayor, Amos Masondo, there was political will to stem the tide of business fleeing to Sandton.
There was engagement with the private sector to redevelop bad and rundown buildings and the Johannesburg Development Agency was formed to oversee projects in the inner city such as the construction of the Constitutional Court building and Nelson Mandela Bridge.
The Johannesburg Property Owners & Management Association was formed to engage with the council and other role players, with the end goal of uplifting the area and providing affordable housing.
The council undertook the Better Buildings Programme to incentivise new owners to take over bad buildings and invest in them. Emergency shelters were built and run by the city, such as the BG Alexander, to provide temporary accommodation to those affected by evictions.
The success of these initiatives led to the development of more than 100,000 well-managed units by 2006. It also led to the establishment of the Trust for Urban Housing under the leadership of Paul Jackson, whose mandate was to lend money to developers in the inner city. Over the years they have lent more than R1bn to property owners redeveloping buildings for residential accommodation.
Things started going downhill thereafter and this accelerated from 2016 with the first coalition government under Herman Mashaba of the DA. Ever since then, under the various coalitions of various parties, things have got ever worse.
The city manager is obscenely quiet on most topics, including the problems of the inner city. There is no management of the inner city, including law enforcement and the upkeep of parks and roads.
All of the institutional knowledge and the various role players have been lost to the city. The council has not communicated with the various private-sector owners in years.
It is all of this that has led to the tragic loss of those 74 lives, and now we have people running around like headless chickens taking no responsibility and trying to reinvent the wheel.
Sol Cowan Former Johannesburg mayoral committee member
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Tragedies occur when cities lose all their institutional knowledge
The city manager is obscenely quiet on most topics, and there is no management of the inner city, including law enforcement
The recent tragedy in the inner city of Johannesburg, where 74 people lost their lives in a fire, can be firmly laid at the door of the city council. Some of the responses by politicians were therefore especially galling.
Social development minister Lindiwe Zulu went to the site of the tragedy and blamed it on apartheid. Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda of the Al Jama-ah party, who can barely string 10 words together without a script, told journalists: “I do not want to engage in a dialogue”.
The truth of the matter is that the phenomenon of bad buildings is not new. Back in 2000 under the leadership of the first democratically elected mayor, Amos Masondo, there was political will to stem the tide of business fleeing to Sandton.
There was engagement with the private sector to redevelop bad and rundown buildings and the Johannesburg Development Agency was formed to oversee projects in the inner city such as the construction of the Constitutional Court building and Nelson Mandela Bridge.
The Johannesburg Property Owners & Management Association was formed to engage with the council and other role players, with the end goal of uplifting the area and providing affordable housing.
The council undertook the Better Buildings Programme to incentivise new owners to take over bad buildings and invest in them. Emergency shelters were built and run by the city, such as the BG Alexander, to provide temporary accommodation to those affected by evictions.
The success of these initiatives led to the development of more than 100,000 well-managed units by 2006. It also led to the establishment of the Trust for Urban Housing under the leadership of Paul Jackson, whose mandate was to lend money to developers in the inner city. Over the years they have lent more than R1bn to property owners redeveloping buildings for residential accommodation.
Things started going downhill thereafter and this accelerated from 2016 with the first coalition government under Herman Mashaba of the DA. Ever since then, under the various coalitions of various parties, things have got ever worse.
The city manager is obscenely quiet on most topics, including the problems of the inner city. There is no management of the inner city, including law enforcement and the upkeep of parks and roads.
All of the institutional knowledge and the various role players have been lost to the city. The council has not communicated with the various private-sector owners in years.
It is all of this that has led to the tragic loss of those 74 lives, and now we have people running around like headless chickens taking no responsibility and trying to reinvent the wheel.
Sol Cowan
Former Johannesburg mayoral committee member
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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