Authorities in the City of Joburg have identified non-compliance with bylaws, illegal connections and vandalism as being among major contributors to the City’s service delivery challenges.
Mayor Dada Morero and his staff (composed of representatives from all departments and city agencies) have witnessed the extent of lawlessness in and around Johannesburg. Morero launched his high-impact service delivery drive in Soweto last month and continued it this week in the township of Cosmo City, where infrastructure was discovered to be deteriorating as a result of a variety of factors such as illegal access to services and deliberate destruction, among others.
“It’s not a service delivery crisis, it’s bylaw enforcement. All the damages that we’ve seen here was as a result of a contribution from communities themselves. It’s not mainly about infrastructure failures.So we need to address bylaw enforcement, get our communities to comply to the law. There’s high levels of encroachment, high levels of the illegal connections, there’s a high level of a sewer being connected into stormwater.So we must address those issues.And once we can address those, it will be easier to deal with the breakages that has happened on infrastructure, which you can then easily reinstate and restore. So I think the programme in the main is bylaw enforcement. (0:49) And we are going to now bring in the JMPD to focus on bylaw enforcement,” said Morero during an inspection in Cosmo City.
Like many townships across Gauteng, Cosmo City has seen a rapid increase in population leading to unlawful extension of houses, particularly backyard rooms that residents use to earn income which in turn results in unlawful connections to electricity, water and sewer networks overwhelming the existing infrastructure. Morero expressed concern that the population growth is uncontrolled vowing to ensure strict adherence to regulations.
“We are meeting with the Department of Development Planning, so that we can also deal with encroachment, which is very high and scary in this area. In fact, there’s a growth of population, uncontrolled unfortunately, which is contributing to the problems that we are faced with on infrastructure. There’s illegal structures that have been built to accommodate people, to increase on the rental economy.And you could see that they were not done following the law. So those are the issues that we are going to deal with. To take a bit of time, but we must,” said the Executive Mayor admitting it will not be easy enforcing compliance with town planning regulations.
The impact of lawlessness and congestion in Cosmo City can be picked up easily from the widespread potholes, water as well as sewage leaks in various parts of the township along with filth that’s becoming a common feature.
“I think Cosmos City is not potholes per se, it’s road defects that are caused by illegal water connection. So when I says the water that is there is not groundwater, it’s grey water, which is water from the sewer, car washes and stuff.As you can see behind me and these guys who are busy washing cars, it goes all the way.So where the slope is, that’s where the road is damaged. So throughout the year, when they’re busy washing cars and stuff like that, and illegal connections, most of the houses across here, they’ve got damping pipes which are connected illegally. So constant water flowing on the road eventually erodes the surface underneath and then damages the bitumen and everything,” said Johannesburg Roads Agency CEO Zweli Nyathi during a doorstep next to a site of several violations.
Cosmo City, which was formed only two decades ago, is not as old as most townships in Gauteng, and Nyathi claims that infrastructure damage is costing the government money that could have been avoided.
“So it’s man-made. It’s not like natural or whatever the case might be. It’s man-made.It’s these illegal connections we need to enforce, we need to correct and we need to teach the community because it’s damaging our road surface.It’s very evident, especially on this corner. It’s not potholes.It’s man-made damages. So we must enforce building control, must make sure there’s no illegal connections. But at the same time, we must make sure that we close these car washes.And if they operate, they need to put their water in the drains instead of just throwing it on the road as it is. Cosmos City is almost 20 years old. So meeting the grey water, there’s also underground water,” said Nyathi, emphasising that the government should not have to spend funds repairing infrastructure it had recently built.
In response to a question concerning Johannesburg’s preparedness to host the next G20, Morero insisted that the city will be ready for the November summit, noting that some of the preparatory meetings have already been held throughout the City.