Economist.com Cities Guide: Johannesburg Briefing - August 2006

News this month

ANC Inc.

Leaders of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) are responding to critics of the party's ties with big business. A party task force is preparing a code of conduct to regulate politicians’ business interests, to be presented at the party’s policy conference next year. And at the end of July Thabo Mbeki, the president, tried to strike a palliative note by maligning greed in general. In his Nelson Mandela annual lecture in Johannesburg, he criticised South Africans’ growing hunger for material wealth, arguing that this has fostered lax attitudes towards theft and corruption, and an erosion of national solidarity.

Various camps, including the Communist Party and trade unions, have accused ANC leaders of being corrupted by personal interests. Many such leaders, including Cyril Ramaphosa, Saki Macozoma and Tokyo Sexwale, are prominent businessmen themselves. Several ANC officials are also suspected of having banked on the largesse of Brett Kebble, a shady businessman who was assassinated in Johannesburg last year. The broad agenda for black economic empowerment, a national policy for financially redressing the wrongs of apartheid, has been criticised for delivering power and wealth to a small elite.

Power to the women

On August 9th 1956, 20,000 women marched in Pretoria to protest against passes, the apartheid system that restricted the movement of blacks. Now the date is a national holiday to celebrate women, and August is officially women’s month in South Africa. Johannesburg commemorated the march’s 50th anniversary with events in different townships, including a speech by Buyelwa Sonjica, South Africa’s energy minister, in Soweto on August 3rd. The celebration also featured a ten-day Women in Arts festival in Newtown.

Though the lot of women in South Africa has improved, the country still has the highest incidence of rape in the world. In August Johannesburg’s executive mayor, Amos Mosondo, announced a draft “women development strategy” to improve women’s welfare and address gender inequality. A formal strategy will be finalised in September and then go before the city council. Meanwhile officials of Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, organised meetings for women to encourage safe sex and civic participation. Earlier this year Gauteng’s premier promised to improve public services and entrepreneurial opportunities for women.

The never-ever train

The Gautrain, the high-speed train that will link Johannesburg to Pretoria, hit a new snag this month. In July the project’s supporters won a small victory when the Gauteng government ruled that work on uncontested parts of the link could proceed. But it seems that such uncontested stretches are becoming ever rarer. Disgruntled residents, who have already launched a flurry of court cases against the project, have embarked on another legal challenge in Pretoria. On August 1st residents asked that work on the project be stopped until its impact is assessed by the national environment and tourism minister.

Continuing battles over the Gautrain make it unlikely that the project will be completed in time for the 2010 Football World Cup. Construction did not start by the end of July as planned, and the project’s sponsors now believe that only the segment linking Johannesburg’s airport to Sandton, a northern neighbourhood, may be finished by 2010. Solidarity, a trade union that represents skilled labour, has asked residents to support the project, arguing that it would create thousands of jobs. But the main trade-union confederation, Cosatu, opposes the project on the grounds that it will benefit only wealthy commuters. Money for the Gautrain, the union’s leaders argue, should instead be spent on improving Metrorail, the existing commuter line.

Talking rubbish

Johannesburg is testing new solutions for a dirty problem. In August the city council approved a pilot system to deal with mounds of rubbish in some areas of the city. The programme will centre on the neighbourhoods of Joubert Park, Yeoville and Slovo Park, where waste quickly accumulates largely because of overcrowding and a shortage of rubbish bins on busy streets. The project will place big containers underground, with small holes at street level. Passers-by can throw litter into the holes; waste will be compacted directly in the containers. Trucks will collect the rubbish at night, unhampered by chaotic traffic during peak hours.

The city expects to spend 5m rand ($738,500) on the trial. Johannesburg, where the 3.2m-strong population is growing by 20,000 people a year, already spends 170m rand annually to gather street litter and clear illegal dump sites—on top of the cost of collecting waste from businesses and residential areas. Pikitup, the municipal waste collection company, hopes the pilot system will reduce these costs.

Stormy weather

South Africa was hit by a wave of bad weather in August. Flooding wreaked havoc in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces, resulting in millions of rand of damage. Other parts of the country sustained unusually cold temperatures and heavy snowfall. The South African army even had to rescue people trapped by snow in the mountains of Lesotho.

Johannesburg was not spared. Snow fell on the city, a phenomenon last seen in the 1980s. Cold weather led to an increase in car accidents and power outages in parts of the city. Relief organisations were kept busy distributing blankets, clothes and hot meals to the needy.

Catch if you can

August 2006

“Hamlet” at the South African Ballet Theatre

September 8th-24th 2006

Kenneth Greve, a star of the Royal Danish Ballet, adapted Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” for the South African Ballet Theatre in 2003. Kimbrian Bergh danced the title role in its premiere, and he reprises his performance in Johannesburg as a guest artist in September. The edgy ballet is set to an appropriately dynamic score, with compositions by both Handel and Poul Ruders, a contemporary Danish composer. “Hamlet” was Mr Greve’s first full-length ballet, which helped to secure invitations to choreograph for the likes of London’s Royal Ballet and his own company in Copenhagen.

Johannesburg Civic Theatre, Loveday St, Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Tel: +27 11 877-6800. Tickets: computicket.co.za or showbusiness.co.za.

See the South African Ballet Theatre’s website.

More from the Johannesburg cultural calendar