Fig.1 City of Johanneburg Council Chamber Building
I was at the municipality, waiting for service, when I came across the phonography contest posted by @untilwelearn. I waited for over two hours without any assistance. This experience gave me the idea to write about the poor service delivery we experience from our government on a daily basis, and couple this with the Phonography contest and my view of a new type of governance gooing forward. So I left my car at the parking lot of the municipality and took a walk around the Johannesburg CBD to capture images of what I believe is a decaying city amid superficial progress.
Fig.2 Waiting to be served at the City of Johannesburg municipality
For the reader to understand better the dichotomy of decay amid superficial progress I referred to earlier, I have to give a brief history of South Africa. However, I have to warn the reader the following content will not be a comfortable read, certain aspects of racism and inequality will be touched on briefly. You may skip this post if this may offend your sensibilities. Before the dawn of democracy in the year 1994, South Africa was under a state of aprtheid , a state under which the minority white (European) settlers/colonizers controlled the government and resources of the country while subjugating the majority native (black) population and other non-white minority groups.
*Fig.3 abandonned multi-storey building in the Johannesburg CBD. This building has been taken over by homeless people. The putrefying stench of urine and feces ambushes your sense as you near the vicinty of the building. This building is only a few meters away from the City Council Chambers, where politicians vote on policies etc. *
The release of Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990 signaled an end of centuries of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa and the beginning of a new hope for all the people of the nation. But little did we know that the new ruling elite was not interested in progress nor the collective good of the people, they were concerned with propagating corruption and elitism among a ruling minority at the cost of progress and growth for the majority of the populous. Although there a lot of areas that we can look at, my focus will be on the deteriorating infrastructure in the city and the millions of money spent in superfluous infrastructure projects to make it look like there is progress.
Fig.4 Above shows vandalised rail infrsutructure in the city. Transportation has become more expensive and less effecient.
Fig.5 is an entrance to a transportation hub used mainly by the elite. It's one of the many superflous projects in the city.
This attitute from appointed leaders shows the imminent need for people to imagine a new form of governance, a decentralised government where blockchain technolgy is used to fulfill policies.
Below are more images taken on that day.
All images taken with Huawei mate pro 20. I've had this phone for 6 years.
