The Gathering 2026: Power to the people — Communities step up as municipalities fail

From lighting up the Nelson Mandela Bridge to reopening a Joburg Library and contesting local elections, communities are finding different ways to reclaim their cities and hold the government to account.

As potholes multiply, public spaces deteriorate and municipal services falter, South Africans are increasingly taking matters into their own hands. As part of Daily Maverick’s annual The Gathering, four civic leaders discussed what happens when communities stop waiting for the government to fix their cities and start doing it themselves.

Daily Maverick associate editor Ferial Haffajee opened the discussion with a story about Mayfair in Johannesburg, where her late mother lived. Spending time in the area as her mother aged, Haffajee found herself counting hundreds of potholes and noticing traffic lights that no longer worked. But what struck her was not the neighbourhood’s decline.

“What I found is that people weren’t sitting still,” she said on Friday, 11 September.

That spirit of civic action ran through the panel discussion, as panellists shared their different ways of responding to failing municipalities.

For Jozi My Jozi Group CEO Bea Swanepoel, the answer was to build what she called a “coalition of the willing”, where residents, businesses and other partners worked alongside the government to make practical improvements.

“Meaningful change can only come through collaboration,” Swanepoel said.

One of Jozi My Jozi’s first projects was to restore lighting on the Nelson Mandela Bridge . “It was a very unsafe bridge for students to cross,” she said, describing the “horrible” things that had been happening there before the intervention.

Working with Ledvance and corporate funders such as Absa and the Maharishi Invincibility Institute, the initiative retrofitted the bridge with an autonomous, solar-powered LED system.

Swanepoel said the bridge became a “beacon of hope” during load shedding, when large parts of the city were plunged into darkness for hours at a time.

She also pointed to a shift in who is showing up. “What’s been incredible to see is the youth involvement,” Swanepoel said. “The universities and students are stepping up and saying, ‘This is enough. How can we help you guys?’”

For Yunus Chamda, the coordinator of the Joburg Crisis Alliance, civic action is less about filling the gaps left by the government and more about pressuring those in power to respond to community concerns.

“When the city isn’t listening, protest action is a response,” Chamda said.

The alliance helped push for the reopening of a Joburg Library through public protest, a campaign that included getting residents to donate books to the closed library, with petitions tucked inside the covers. The stunt generated enough publicity to help force the issue.