Community groups are preventing Joburg from collapsing — they need more support

I am usually the voice of doom and gloom coming through your television or radio, speaking about everything that is wrong with Johannesburg. It may therefore surprise some people to learn that I remain optimistic about the future of the city I love.

Julia Fish is the managing director of JoburgCAN and a steering committee member of the Johannesburg Crisis Alliance.

In my line of work, conducting oversight of the City of Johannesburg, I am often asked whether Joburg can be saved – and whether it should be.

The daily headlines tell one story: Egoli has lost its shine. Knowing what I do about the City’s financial position, infrastructure backlogs and repeated service delivery failures, I should be among the most pessimistic people in Johannesburg.

Instead, I see every day how residents, businesses and community organisations are preventing the city from collapsing. People are rolling up their sleeves, building partnerships and taking responsibility for the spaces around them.

The Braamfontein Improvement District is a powerful example of what is possible.

The difference between a managed City Improvement District (CID) and the surrounding areas is often glaring. As an example, in Braamfontein, the daily work of cleaning streets, reporting leaks and faulty traffic lights, improving public spaces and creating initiatives such as the Ameshoff Street revival has helped keep urban decay at bay.

And there are many more spread across the city’s seven regions doing the hard work needed to keep these precincts viable spaces for people to live, work and play.

These interventions do more than make an area look better. They help create safer, cleaner and more functional neighbourhoods. They encourage investment, support businesses and make public spaces more accessible. Most importantly, they create a sense of inclusion and optimism that reflects the real character of the City of Gold.

The value of organised communities became especially clear in 2023. Johannesburg was rocked by the Lilian Ngoyi Street explosion, the deadly fire at the City-owned Usindiso building and the closure of the Metro Centre.

Faced with these failures, the people of Johannesburg did not simply sit back. They said: not in my name.

I was volunteering for my local residents’ association at the time. Historically, residents’ associations may have been associated with church fêtes and neighbourhood security initiatives. Today, many have become the front line of service delivery.

They are adopting parks, repairing libraries, reporting failing infrastructure and helping residents through prolonged water and electricity outages. In my community, that has included installing backup water tanks.

In September, the Lonehill Residents Association crossed a major milestone by signing an MOU with the City that allows the residents association to repair potholes on City roads within its suburb.