A golden glow settles over a wetland park and surrounding homes as the sun sets over Joburg’s western suburbs on a frantic Wednesday afternoon, but the busy thoroughfare that intersects it plays host to an almost dystopian scene.
A sewage leak has damaged a section of 9th Avenue in Weltevreden Park, closing one of the lanes and causing drivers to play ‘dodgem’ on their rush-hour commute as they jostle for space in the one open lane.
Some hoot at chance takers who didn’t wait their turn, as their tyres sludge through sewage that has welled up on the street following yet another infrastructure failure in the area.
But barely 300 metres up the road, there are signs of hope.
Vegetation that had grown out of control around the bridge under the N1 highway has been cleared, and the area is looking neat and pristine once again.
Long neglected, the foliage had blocked pavements, forcing pedestrians to endanger their lives by walking on the road’s shoulder, while muggings were a regular occurrence as criminals hid in the bushes.
But it wasn’t the municipality that cleared this mess, as they should have.
Residential associations (RAs) are something you might normally have associated with neighbourhood watch initiatives and the sending of stern letters to home owners with illegal extensions of the kind that would even make brutalist architects squirm.
But in the crumbling city that is Johannesburg, these associations are doing so much more than that. Piece by piece, they’re helping to save the city from its own downward spiral.
The clean-up of 9th avenue was a joint project between the Panorama Residents Association (PRA) and an NPO called Community Cleaners from the neighbouring suburb of Fairlands, which shares the highway bridge.
“I don’t care, politically, who runs a city, but just do the work that the ratepayers are paying for. It should not take us to go and do that work,” said Dave Baxter, Chairman of the Panorama Residents Association.
“We should be doing things like putting up a jungle gym in the park, or fencing off a dog park. But instead we’re doing the real work.”
And that is no exaggeration.
The suburb was littered with potholes following an unseasonally wet rainy season, and the Johannesburg Roads Agency was simply not keeping up, to put it mildly.
Yet despite numerous challenges, that wasn’t a problem that the PRA’s Panorama@Work team couldn’t fix. They bought around six tonnes of tar with their own funds, while local businesses sponsored other essentials, such as trailers to transport the pallets of tar and a compactor to compress it into the ground.
In spite of the logistical challenges, the team managed to fill almost every pothole in the area.
“That’s a massive achievement, and not something every neighborhood can say. It’s thanks to the power of a community that cares and comes together to make a difference,” Baxter said.
The team also regularly cleans up parks in the area, removing invasive vegetation, and much of their time is also spent cutting grass next to busy roads. These initiatives also create employment opportunities.
At the other end of Weltevreden Park, the Welridge Resident’s Association (WRA) takes pride in maintaining what is surely one of the most pristine greenbelts in the city, but their hard work also helps to prevent flooding.
Strolling through the greenbelt that cuts through the suburb, you are greeted by cut grass, newly planted indigenous trees with labels and even a few park benches.
Working in tandem with City Parks, the WRA pays for a contractor to keep the parks clean, while the grass on road verges is regularly cut.
“We have removed over 350 alien invasive trees and plants last year alone, some indigenous trees that were infected by shothole borers also had to be removed,” said WRA member liaison officer Audrey Vrachionidi.
“We have also planted 229 indigenous plants and trees to date, under the supervision and advice of an indigenous landscaper who we paid for privately.”
The new trees help to control the high water table in the area, which has over 50 natural springs, making it prone to flooding in the summer months. To that end, the WRA also installed an additional drain to help carry underground water to the river and prevent it from damaging a nearby road.
Keeping the water table and vegetation under control is a mammoth enough task on its own, but so far we’ve only scratched the surface of what Joburg’s many residents’ associations do.
Thanks to ageing infrastructure, much of the city is prone to regular power and water outages, leaving residents frustrated and in the dark in more ways than one, as communication from City Power is sporadic at best.
During a recent power outage that lasted over 48 hours, the PRA’s Deputy Chairman Michael Steyn and ward councillor Zander Shawe spent considerable time liaising with City Power officials to ensure speedy repairs, and regularly visited the repair site for updates, while Steyn kept the neighbourhood informed through regular posts the PRA WhatsApp groups.
The PRA team did the same with the aforementioned sewage leak on 9th avenue, among countless examples of them pressurising city officials to repair faults and maintain infrastructure.
While residents associations have evolved considerably from their original ‘neighbourhood watch’ mandate, community safety still remains a priority, with many heavily involved in community policing forums in the area.
Panorama residents that we spoke to say calls for help in their emergency WhatsApp group are answered within seconds, with the relevant response teams dispatched immediately.
“Active residents associations play a vital role in the success and effectiveness of community safety initiatives. Their involvement significantly enhances the ability of the Honeydew CPF (Community Policing Forum) to operate efficiently,” Steyn said.
Groups such as the PRA act as a single point of contact for the community, making it easier to relay important information to hundreds of members quickly, and allowing for faster and more coordinated responses, he added.
“The contribution of these associations is invaluable. In areas where residents associations are active and engaged, we often see a noticeable reduction in crime.”
The importance of making a difference
spoke to numerous residents associations in the western suburbs, all of whom are making a difference in their communities through initiatives similar to the ones we’ve already highlighted.
Leanne Bentley, Chairperson of the Randpark Ridge Residents Association 14+4, said she loves being in a room with like-minded people who want to make a difference.
“As an RA we often reach out to residents, urging them to get involved in making our community better, whether reporting problems instead of just complaining on the group chats or actively getting involved in clean-ups.”
She, and her counterpart Karen Poole of the Constantia Village RA, mentioned numerous businesses and community organisations that assist with area clean-ups, security initiatives, pothole filling and much more.
Many also reach out to less fortunate individuals and those in need. The PRA, for instance, recently collected 52 blankets in just a matter of hours, for community medics to give to patients awaiting government ambulances on cold winter nights.
It takes just one drive through the city of Johannesburg to notice that all is not well with the city. From street lights not working to potholes, water leaks, traffic intersections out and the list goes on.
But know this. Were it not for the many active residents associations giving freely of their time to improve their neighbourhoods, this ‘crumbling’ city would be in a far worse state than it is now.
