Does Joburg need a deputy mayor? Here are some things she could tackle

Johannesburg’s new deputy mayor, Loyiso Masuku, at the ANC Joburg regional conference on 3 December 2025 in Sandton. Picture: Gallo Images/Sharon Seretlo Ahhhh Johannesburg. A city designed to keep you on your toes and your anxiety medication within reach.

Having recently moved back and selected water-allergic Melville as my home base, I’ve noticed the ubiquitous decay firsthand. Obviously, the solution is to appoint thecity’s first ever deputy mayor. What’s most exciting is that her job description seems to be concise and direct: turn the city around.

My goodness, how will we cope with Alberton in the north now? In seriousness, who put the city in the position that it needs a turn around in the first place? A better question would be what does turning the city around look like?

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Increase service delivery and improve revenue? Okay, so they’ll send a team of 40 to close a leaking tap in Florida and hike rates. That will do the trick even though it won’t feel like much to most of us.

So, I figured I’d give the deputy mayor some tips on what can easily be done to fix Jozi. Start with scrapping Rea Vaya bus lanes. Nobody respects them, least of all the metro cops who are supposed to enforce them.

With things like that, you either need to enforce them vigorously or give up on them. You can’t be shocked at a general state of lawlessness when you incentivise bad behaviour at the expense of those who are obeying the law. I’m sure the aunty in the plebian lane is in just as much a rush as the taxi taking a shortcut, but why should she be okay with sitting tight while nothing happens to law breakers?

Given how fed-up residents are, the first vents of anger are usually aimed at ward councillors. Frankly, I’m not certain many of them even know what they’re meant to do, let alone care enough to do it. Poor councillors.

Only they’re not really that poor. Many are earning over half a million rand and for what? If the deputy mayor could institute some kind of visible audit of the work that individual councillors are doing, residents will have some sort of understanding of what councillors should be doing. We’d also have some way of showing non-performing councillors how much better they could be.

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