The Infrastructure Crisis by Dada Morero Is Not Inevitable. It Is Deliberately Aimed at Destroying Joburg

People came to Johannesburg to build businesses, create jobs, and pursue better lives. It was the city that moved South Africa forward.

Too many residents wake up to a different reality: refuse piling up on corners, prolonged electricity outages, dry taps, and sanitation systems that fail the very people they are meant to serve. What should concern us most is not only that these problems exist, it is that we have slowly begun accepting the norm, when they shouldn’t.

A city does not become dirty overnight. Infrastructure does not collapse in a day. Public confidence is not lost in a single moment. Decline happens when maintenance becomes an afterthought, when accountability disappears, and temporary fixes replace long-term planning.

Johannesburg’s infrastructure crisis is not inevitable. It is the result of choices. And different choices can produce different outcomes. One of the most visible signs of decline is waste.

Across communities, residents see overflowing bins, illegal dumping and inconsistent refuse collection. This is often dismissed as a cleanliness issue, but it is far more serious than that. Waste management is a public health issue. Uncollected refuse attracts pests, contaminates land and waterways, increases pollution, and damages the dignity of communities. It sends a message that public spaces do not matter. It also affects economic confidence. Investors do not invest in cities that cannot maintain basic services. Johannesburg needs a complete reset in how waste is managed.

Collection schedules must become reliable. Illegal dumping hotspots must be treated with urgency. Recycling and waste separation must become inherently practical municipal programmes, instead of policy language hidden in documents.

Cities around the world, with thriving municipalities are best practice in demonstrating that change is possible. In Seoul, South Korea transformed its urban environment by reducing landfill dependence, introducing strict waste separation systems, and improving municipal accountability. Cleaner cities are built through discipline, infrastructure and execution.

Johannesburg does not lack ideas. It lacks implementation. Electricity is another example. Power interruptions are doing more than inconveniencing residents they are actively damaging livelihoods. Businesses lose revenue. Informal traders lose income. Families spend more to survive outages while facing increasing costs.

The conversation must move beyond outages and begin addressing the affordability and sustainability of tariff structures. Residents should not feel punished for consuming a service that remains unreliable.

A functioning city requires investment in maintenance, smarter infrastructure planning, and a tariff model that supports growth, while protecting vulnerable households.

The same urgency must apply to water provision. Nothing erodes public trust faster than uncertainty around access to water. When businesses cannot operate and communities cannot plan because interruptions have become routine, confidence in local government withers.

Water infrastructure must be treated as strategic infrastructure. That means reducing leaks, accelerating maintenance, investing in system resilience, and communicating honestly with residents.

Trust is built when people see problems being solved, not explained.

Then there is sanitation. Sanitation is often discussed as a technical issue. It is not. Sanitation is dignity. No person should live without safe and functioning sanitation infrastructure. Backlogs must be eliminated and outdated systems removed wherever they still exist.

A city that cannot guarantee sanitation, cannot claim to be delivering quality of life. Children deserve safe facilities. Families deserve healthy environments. This is what communities deserve, regardless of where their postcode is.

Johannesburg cannot continue managing decline; it needs to be responsive to it. The choice before us is straightforward. We can continue lowering expectations, and treating service delivery failures as inevitable and part of daily life. Or we can rebuild a city that works. A city where streets are clean. Where electricity is reliable. Where water flows. Where sanitation protects dignity.

The standards we accept today will determine the Johannesburg we leave behind for the generations to come. That is why infrastructure delivery is not merely a governance issue. It is a question of leadership.

The City of Johannesburg does not need more promises, it needs execution. The solutions to our infrastructure challenges are neither unknown nor unattainable. They require disciplined maintenance, transparent governance, investment in core infrastructure and leadership that measures success by outcomes. The time for meaningless announcements is up.

A cleaner city through the indicators of modern waste management, reliable electricity that is supported by fair tariffs, secure water supply, and dignified sanitation. They are attainable if there is political will and operational efficiency. Johannesburg can work again.

The question is not whether we have the capacity to fix our city, it is whether we have the courage to govern differently and deliver consistently.

ActionSA Funzi Ngobeni (KZN Provincial Chairperson) Governance Expert: Served as the MMC for Finance in Johannesburg under Mashaba. The Mission: Tasked with growing ActionSA’s footprint in KwaZulu-Natal, a notoriously difficult and contested political landscape.