Jozi vs Jozi: New X page shows the ‘urban tragedy’ of the city of gold

A concerned Johannesburg resident has started an X page to detail the devastating “devolution” of the city of gold, showing its decline by comparing areas from 10-15 years ago to what they have become.

The Jozi vs Jozi page was started two weeks ago and had garnered more than 24,000 followers by Tuesday morning.

Most of the posts are comparative photos taken from Google Maps, which show clean streets and tarred roads juxtaposed with the state of the same streets in 2024, often littered, filled with potholes and cluttered, and the degradation of buildings over the period.

The man behind the X page, who wished to remain anonymous, was born and raised in Johannesburg. He started the page due to disappointment at how the country’s economic hub has “evolved and devolved” in recent years.

“I grew up in the West Rand and went to boarding school and studied at Wits University. I experienced every crevasse of the city. Johannesburg has disintegrated on the basic level. The quality of roads, traffic lights and street lights that are not working. Those three things stand out for everyone who lives in Johannesburg and that is the broad devolution of the city,” he said. 

He blames the Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) for the poor state of the city’s roads as traffic lights and potholes are rarely repaired, and since 2012 he has noticed neglect of the city’s streets.

“The road infrastructure is most troubling. The JRA has seen a catastrophic decline of not patching potholes, or painting lines on the roads. I drove through Witkoppen Road in April and hit a pothole which dented my rim. I had to continue driving because I couldn’t stop anywhere since it was dark.”

He said he wanted to compare democratic Johannesburg when it was at its peak and students would walk through the streets of Braamfontein and come across European tourists, or walk across the Nelson Mandela Bridge to catch taxis with no concerns for their safety.

However, it appears people have become desensitised to the city’s “dysfunction” and its problems, and Johannesburg no longer has hope, he said.

He highlighted the issue of hijacked buildings as the first symptom of the “overall cancer” the city has experienced over the years.

“A lot of the buildings are owned by old white people who left the city long ago. Some are owned by the city and there is no will on both sides to reclaim the city or hijacked buildings. It has to be done on a scale — and quickly.

“They can’t just identify and attend to two blocks, like what happened in Maboneng. Any effort to reclaim and rehabilitate hijacked buildings needs to happen and requires a huge investment at the same time. It doesn’t look like it’s happening.”

The X page is intended to raise awareness about the state of the city and influence voter behaviour. The account states its mission is to raise awareness “around the unprecedented but avoidable decline in a city that means a lot to many people”.

“Joburg is the most important city in South Africa. It carries the country economically and for South Africa to grow, Johannesburg needs to thrive,” he told TimesLIVE.

“We can’t let it fail. Johannesburg is one of the greatest urban tragedies I have seen.”

TimesLIVE