The City: Joburg
The 2023 In-depth Reporting Project unpacks the mechanisms, missteps and (mis)management of the City of Johannesburg. Using some of the municipality’s directorates, our student journalists explored a range of issues plaguing the city they have come to call home.
All of the stories in this series were produced by the class of 2023, with the help of dedicated mentors Matshidiso Madia, Athandiwe Saba and Dr Nechama Brodie.
Joburg: The city on edge
By Seth Thorne
Johannesburg is famous for its fortunes and notorious for its crime. With millions in the city chasing a dream – are they adequately being kept safe?
When the sun sets over the economic hub of South Africa, Johannesburg – do you feel safe? “No, I don’t – crime in Joburg [is] way too high,” said Rogers Risenga, a resident of Alexandra – one of the city’s hotspots for serious crimes.
He is not alone – nearly eight in ten of the 6,2 million residents are estimated to be living with constant feelings of unsafety in the city, and who can blame them? Joburg consistently tops the list where the most serious crimes are reported in Gauteng province.
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City of Joburg attempting to fill student housing gap
By Morongoa Masebe
Johannesburg Social Housing Company’s student housing project aims to bridge the affordability gap but grapples with inner-city infrastructure and service delivery limitations
On the corner of Simmonds and Wolmarans streets, in the heart of the Johannesburg CBD, a cross-border bus station runs over with hundreds of packers and porters shouting offers to carry your luggage and show you the right bus, for the best price.
The chaotic business of trying to earn a living is nothing new to this part of town, but is a definite safety concern for Chris Mazibuko…
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Joburg’s landfills almost at capacity
By Ayanda Mgwenya
Soon, the city of Joburg will be sinking in its own rubbish.
While walking through Johannesburg’s CBD, it is difficult to ignore the amount of rubbish that coats the inner city’s streets. Bree Street, which was recently hit by a gas explosion, is now filled with some of the waste that is carried throughout the city and blown around by the wind, into the raptured road.
However, a more pressing issue lies hidden within Johannesburg’s landfills, which are meant to accommodate the continuously increasing piles of waste from the streets and illegal dumping grounds.
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CoJ drowns swimming hopes of a generation
By Otsile Swarathle
The metro keeps budgeting for a swimming pool in Cosmo City that is now seven-years in the making while pools in Windsor West, Robin Hills, and Blairgowrie remain closed with no hopes of ever being utilised.
Way back in May 2016, then Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for finance in the City of Johannesburg, councillor Geoffrey Makhubo delivered a budget speech in which the construction of a new swimming pool in Cosmo City was announced, as one of the projects the city’s department of community development would oversee that year.
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R10 billion spent on entrepreneurs since 2017, but little to show for it
By Kimberley Kersten
The City of Johannesburg invested billions in business incubators, policy changes and partnerships with the private sector to boost entrepreneurship as a solution to unemployment, but these efforts have been considered “inadequate” on a global scale.
The Roodepoort Civic Centre has a hidden entrance behind the glitz and glamour of the Roodepoort Theatre. It is here, just inside a small, gated door, where hopeful entrepreneurs can find the unassuming sign that reads, “Isiqalo Opportunity Centre.” A short trip to the fourth floor of the building and down a long corridor reveals a medium sized room, clean and tidy but especially quiet.
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Alexandra: A microcosm of the Joburg’s housing crisis
By Terri-Ann Brouwers
Corruption, inequality, mismanagement, and most importantly, the rapid growth of informal settlements—are all testament to the city’s flawed housing system.
On the fateful morning of August 31, 2023 the City of Johannesburg was jolted awake by a harrowing inferno that engulfed a building at 80 Albert Street, claiming the lives of nearly 80 people. This tragic incident spotlighted the alarming reality of numerous hijacked buildings scattered across Johannesburg. These buildings often house the poorest of the poor and are typically overcrowded, unregulated and unsafe.
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Water shortages are here to stay for Joburg residents
By Georgia Cartwright
Experts predicted the need for a larger water capacity more than a decade ago, but lack of action from water entities and municipalities has left Johannesburg communities unprepared to deal with the consequences.
Johannesburg is the industrial and commercial heart that gives life to South Africa’s continuously shifting economy. However, the city is prone to poor planning and the mismanagement of valuable resources which has left many residents without access to basic service delivery such as water.
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City of gold or city of old? Joburg’s crumbling infrastructure points to chronic neglect
By Sbongile Molambo
Some of the most important arteries linking the city of Joburg’s road network are in poor condition due to years of non-maintenance.
The recent collapse of a pedestrian bridge in Jeppestown (property of Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) where two people got injured while walking on it highlighted the fragile condition many of the bridges in Joburg are in.
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In Westbury young people’s choices are limited to gangsterism or staying indoors
By Aphelele Mbokotho
Well-resourced recreational facilities are meant to serve as a haven for the youth but that’s not the case for the community of Westbury.
The Joburg west suburb, Westbury has been crying about gang violence and drugs for years on end and their cries have seemingly gone unheard. The weekend of February 25, 2023 was the start of another cycle of violence in this community, two people were killed and 11 injured as a result of gang-related violence.
Like in the previous instances of violence in Westbury, the government, this time led by Minister of Police Bheki Cele reacted through a community meeting.
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Homelessness a hot potato for the city and NGOs
By Sfundo Parakozov
Various city departments and non-profit organizations in Johannesburg have become entangled in a cycle of shifting responsibility and pointing fingers at each other when issues of homelessness are brought up.
“All that glitters is not gold” is a well known aphorism that conveys the idea that appearances can be deceiving, thus some things are too good to be true. The city of Johannesburg, often dubbed the City of Gold, serves as a vivid illustration of this saying as it grapples with significant disparities stemming from political instability, macro-economic challenges, and persistent social problems.
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Joburg’s digital economy – a boom or a bust?
By Nonhlanhla Mathebula
Thirty-seven percent of South Africa’s population is missing out on the progress of a digital economy because they do not have an internet connection.
There is a digital skills gap in South Africa resulting in the outsourcing of over 300 000 jobs and the loss of R8,5 billion in export revenue each year. This is according to Derek Davey.
South Africa is one of Africa’s top five economic hubs according to Ventures Africa, but does the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) have what it takes to bridge the digital skills divide and become one of the continent’s leading tech hubs with a thriving digital economy?
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