Kenny Kunene says we have been ‘indoctrinated’ to believe Cape Town roads are better than Joburg’s

A vehicle passes a massive hole in the road at the intersection of Queen Street and Langerman Drive in Kensington, Johannesburg, 7 January 2026. Picture: Michel Bega/The Citizen Kenny Kunene has waved away the claim that Cape Town streets are in a better condition than Johannesburg’s, saying anyone who believes so is “indoctrinated”. The Joburg MMC for transport was recently asked byPodcast and Chill co-host MacGwhy Joburg was in such a shabby state.

“When you travel to Cape Town, and you look at the roads, you see how beautiful it is. It’s clean. Why can’t we do that?

When you land in Johannesburg, it is like a dumping site,” the podcaster claimed. “You are indoctrinated,” came Kunene’s quick response. The politician pointed out that there were roads in Cape Town comparable to those in Joburg.

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When this was acknowledged, but he was challenged on comparing the inner cities’ roads, Kunene shifted to blaming corruption and illegal immigration. “You have to get rid of illegal immigrants. You have to make sure the buildings are returned to their owners.

You have to make sure that the buildings of the city are returned to government and government partners with the private sector to renovate those buildings. “Without removing the criminals there and the criminal syndicates, you will never clean the inner city.” He claimed people were “eating”, and existing property law made it hard to evict criminals and buildings being hijacked “You need to fix the system. You need to fix the road.

You need to clean the buildings, and you’ll clean the inner city. Unless you do that, my brother, I will fix the roads in the inner city, and they will be rotten tomorrow because the people who are there don’t care.” The City of Johannesburg has launched a High-Impact Service Delivery Programme to clean the inner city, enforce by-laws, take back hijacked buildings, and improve infrastructure.

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