Kenny Kunene says we have been ‘indoctrinated’ to believe Cape Town roads are better than Joburg’s
· 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 by Podcast and Chill co-host MacG why Joburg was in such a shabby state.
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“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.
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 evacuate [people and illegal structures] for you to clean the inner city, for you to bring it to its glory.
“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.”
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Corruption
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.”
Joburg’s drive to clean the inner city stutters
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.
The programme was launched ahead of last year’s G20 Leaders’ Summit. It was criticised as a mere cleanup to impress world leaders and would continue after the event.
Despite promising days before the summit that this was not the case, Joburg mayor Dada Morero later had to admit that Johannesburg had slipped back into a dirty and broken state after the summit.
Responding to a social media user’s video of a filthy city centre, Morero said “officials have dropped the ball”.
“I said this in December, but we are not folding. The inner city is a priority,” said Morero.
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Ramaphosa not impressed
A Presidential Johannesburg Working Group was also launched in March 2025 to focus on strengthening governance and financial sustainability, improving service delivery, water and sanitation, and electricity, rejuvenating inner-city hubs and townships, and revitalising cultural and heritage institutions, and safety, law enforcement and urban security.
Ramaphosa recently told ANC NEC members that the city is still failing.
“There has been slower-than-expected progress in the city of Johannesburg, where officials and stakeholders must improve and accelerate their co-operation to make meaningful progress in addressing citizens’ concerns”
He said local ANC leaders and members must focus on governance ahead of the local government elections later this year.
“The progress we make must be seen and felt by South Africans. There is a gap, and we need to do more.
“You either do what you are meant to do, or you move out, so that others can do the task. It is simple,” he later added.
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