My broken Johannesburg
by Ian Sanders
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Last modified 11 September 2026
The intent of this page is to give me a venue to "blow off some steam" about the way my home city is being destroyed by those who should be nuturing it and those who should care about it because they live here too. I will also (very occassionally, I imagine) wonder at amazing things that happen here.
I am not going to go back into the history of the "fall of Johannesburg" unless it is required to give context to my writings.
On my way to take my son to school I have to cross Queen Street in Kensington. This road has been in a dire state since there was a burst main sewer under the road in around March 2025. Earlier this year (May to July) CoJ repaired the sewer but did not bother to fix the road afterwards. The pot holes have been getting bigger and deeper in the ensuing months. The heavy rains of last week turned the road into a swampland with some very deep and dangerous pot holes. Over the last few days numerous vehicles have driven into and been swallowed by these pot holes. See some examples below.
There was yet another car trapped this morning.
I wonder how long it will be before the road is repaired?
Note that a bit further up Queen Street, at the intersection with Highland Road, there are traffic lights that haven't worked for at least 2 years.
At the intersection of Smith Road and Sovereign Street in Bedfordview (near to Reddam House Bedfordview) there was a blocked storm water drain that had flooded the road. This has happened before and a proper repair was not done.
At around 5.00am I woke to the screen of my wife's cellphone flickering on and off. Then our power went off! I looked outside but could not see anything so I went outside.
I then discovered that the security guard from the school had interrupted a couple of people who were trying to steal the cables of the City Power pole that supplies our house and some of our neighbours. They had not actually cut the cables but had ripped them out of the junction box at the top of the pole. The cables were just lying on the ground. The attempt had also pulled down the fibre cables and cut off the Internet for most people in the street.
I logged a fault on the City Power Portal at 6.31am.
My wife contacted Vodacom and reported the Internet outage.
By the evening, Vuma had repaired the fibre connections.
City Power had SMSed us a reference number.
Over the last few days I have made numerous calls to the City Power Call Centre to find out what is happening. Some of the call centre agents assured me that they would escalate the fault. I saw no evidence that this was actually done.
One agent told me that he couldn't help me as my account was "blocked" and I had to phone CoJ to sort that out first. That freaked me out! I phoned CoJ and was told there was nothing wrong with my account -- paid up to date!
Eventually on Sunday we heard that the fault had been passed on to Ruven and we got a call from them. They asked if the fault had been resolved. I said No!. I was told a technician would be assigned.
This morning I got a call from a technician. He asked if the fault had been repaired and when I said no, he said he was on his way.
He duly arrived and by the afternoon we had power again. 6 Days without power!
Today we have a trickle of water coming out of our taps. No news from Johannesburg Water of what the problem is or when it will be resolved.
In the morning we once again had a trickle of water. By around midday the flow was decent but it is still not what it used to be.
At least we are better off than those who have not had any water for weeks/months
Many South African drivers are arrogant, rude, clueless, etc. My experience today started by having to trail behind an small white car doing around 20 km per hour down Marathon Street in Kensington. I could not pass because of oncoming traffic. This little white car then simply sailed (without any change in speed) through the red at the Intersection of Marathon and Roberts. Absolutely no idea!
Some South African drivers also seem not to be very smart. I just saw a car stuck in one of the potholes in Queen Street (see above for the state of Queen Street). The driver had obviously ignored the yellow barrier blocking the road and the "Road Closed" sign handwritten on it. He/she then must have decided that his/her car could drive through the potholes. Clearly, it could not.
The Leicester Road School parent body this year seems to have a larger than usual group of arrogant, entitled, obnoxious, etc. people. The members of this group are too lazy (or whatever) to find a parking place and then walk their kids to the school gate. Instead they park in or across the driveways of the houses close to the school gate. Ours is one of those houses. If one hoots at them, they look puzzled and then, when they realise that they are blocking the way, simply take their own sweet time to move. If one actually tries to talk to them then they are rude and unobliging. I had one grandparent who told me that normal traffic rules as regards parking don't apply near to schools. I have yet to have a parent apologise for block the driveway! Sometimes they try to justify why they parked where they did but no apologies!
An example This morning I went out and as I was locking the front door saw a car parked across our driveway, The mom was sitting behind the wheel while the kids took their bags out of the boot. By the time I got to my garage, the kids had left. The mom was still there. I opened the garage and then the gate. She stayed sitting so I walked down to ask her to move. She was looking at messages or something on her cellphone and was totally oblivious about what was going on until I asked her to move out of our driveway. Then she accused me of being rude and aggressive. I admit to being annoyed but I was not rude and certainly was not agressive. Eventually she grudgingly put away her phone and moved off.
A very irritating way to start one's day.
We applied for an official copy of our marriage certificate at Edenvale Home Affairs on the 9th of April 2026. Since then we have been to Home Affairs a number of times to "collect". Apparently they do not notify you when it is ready, you just have to "come in". It is still not ready! Five months later! The general comment that we get is "oh, those take a long time". This is truly ridiculous.