Johannesburg’s deepening water crisis and why the chaos of alpha male politics is bad for your health

Voters have to make wise choices!

It's all up to the voters I have said this time and time again that the ANC Government and IEC are one in the same. South Africa needs a miracle to get the ANC Government out of power. I know alot of people in South Africa believe it possible unfortunately I don't. The best South Africans will get are some Wards in certain areas. I don't believe any Political Party will get the big Metros I see ANC and EFF getting Johannesburg Pretoria and Durban. It's just my opinion. Time will tell

It's better to vote for white party because they don't steal too much and they run government efficiently. I am black boy from a township in Ekurhuleni municipal. I obviously like black people because I am black but I have realised that we DO not vote for DA because it's white party. But white people are part of SA and we are connected together whether we are white or black. Let us vote for anyone who is capable of taking SA to the next level and not vote based on race. DA should be given a chance not because it is white party, but because it is a South African party full of South Africans who want to make SA great. Let us have white president, let us have woman president, the woman president can be black or white or coloured or Indian or South African Chinese.

You get the government you vote for. Stop voting for the African National Corruption party and the EFF. The ANC doesn't care Jack about the country, they care only about the party, if the majority Black population continues to vote for the ANC they will continue to be abused, like we all are. Black Lives DONT Matter to the ANC, only the connected comrades, cadres, cronies and commies matter to the ANC. The ANC are utterly incompetent, inept and just plain thieving pigs - with respect to actual pigs who are highly interested animals.

Let go the sexism and misandry. Nothing to do with alpha males, everything to do with incompetence and a lack of planning. If the headline had said, "bossy female politics is bad for your health", we'd have howls of "misogyny."

The ANC government is proud to present to present "Eskom 2, Watershedding", a riveting sequel filled with your favourite provocations , incompetence, laziness, and of course, corruption.

Service delivery in Johannesburg has been in decline since we entered the realm of coalition governments in 2016. In that time there have been 8 mayors, one of who served two spells. There have been seven changes of Mayor since mid 2021. With no one party ever in charge, and mayors constantly changing, nothing is ever the fault of this week's government. And Helen Zille made an interesting comment a while back, to the effect that these coalitions of 6 or 7 parties take up most of their time just trying to keep the coalition holding. Coalitions seem to be the coming thing in SA, but we need to get better at running them. Less time spent figuring out what they agree on means more time thinking about actual governance.

We need to think about how we use water. Not just through the current miseries, but constantly, going forwards. It's a finite resource, and we can be cleverer, more prudent, with the way we use it. My family came to South Africa in 1970. There was a drought that year and there were signs everywhere: "Water is for everyone. Use it, but don't abuse it." We should still have that attitude. Everybody, everywhere, all the time.

To all the posters saying we got the government in Joburg we voted for, that's not actually true: our current mayor is from a hopeless party of off the charts radical opportunists in it for the money. He wasn't even the first choice (out of 3 councillors), the first one was so economically illiterate that even Gaytom McKenzie couldn't stomach him. So how did Kabelo Gwamanda become Mayor? Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi bulldozed him into office with absolutely no regard for thr citizens of Joburg. Let every voter remember this on the 29th of May: Panyaza Lesufi is directly responsible for the collapse of Joburg's water and roads infrastructure and he doesn't give a damn.

We have to put our finger on one of government's most cherished ideologies: namely BEEE. Or at least the way the latter is interpreted. In essence the thinking seems to be that replacing skilled engineering staff is as simple as introducing legislation and that somehow the subsequently deployed cadres will instantly obtain the necessary expertise by osmosis. The situation is not altogether different from when the Romans departed the shores of "Brittania". The "locals" thought they could manage all the aquaducts and other civil engineering infrastructure the Roman "oppressors" had put in place. But they could not and "Britannia" thereafter had to endure centuries of economic and political chaos. "Urban life was in sharp decline, buildings were abandoned, infrastructure such as sewers and water pipes ceased to be maintained, the centre of many towns moved (implying abandonment and later rebuilding) and some places, such as Silchester, disappeared." Does that sound familiar and if so can we perhaps learn some lessons from it. Over to you Cyril !