Joburg needs passion and purpose, not politics and promises

There’s just under a month to go before the all-important local government elections and if you weren’t despondent already, you will be by the time polls open.

We’ve been subjected to a steady diet of how irredeemably broken Johannesburg is, thanks to the social media granny swimming in potholes, playing tennis in the wilderness and zip-lining over urban dongas.

All the other mayoral hopefuls are limbering up to steal her shine, they’ll be telling us what we already believe to be true.

One or two of the minnow parties are hell-bent on forging any pact with anyone with a seat after 4 November, to stop Gogozilla from becoming mayor.

Our lamp poles are full of promises.

One enterprising bunch are pitching themselves as a viable alternative to the incumbents that broke Johannesburg, their greatest challengers whom, they say, will sell Joburg, leaving themselves as the only ones that will build it.

Another promises victory or death, which is quite extreme until you’ve lived without running water for a couple of weeks.

As for the ruling party, it’s asking for another chance, a novel iteration on the-dog-ate-my-homework defence.

The danger is that pendulum could swing so far that some people might think the problem is so bad, there’s no point in voting because no one will be able to sort out the mess.

That would be wrong. Joburg does have problems but it’s not hopeless, not by a long chalk.

However, everyone seems to be singing off the same hymn sheet – even the bunch that got us here right now.

And there are days which are particularly dire, even by the standards which we have become used to, when the reservoirs dry up or the power fails, not because the residents haven’t paid.

But then there’s the story that gives hope. Last weekend, Blairgowrie swimming pool had its great reopening, an image of harmony and service delivery.

It was derelict for years until a group of concerned residents took matters into their own hands and fixed it with the council’s blessing.

The residents redeemed something that most had given up on, just like so many other municipal swimming pools.

Maybe that is the route for Johannesburg to eventually become that much-vaunted African world-class city – passion and purpose, rather than politics and promises.