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"title": "IN PHOTOS: Boks game scores a big fix for eastern Johannesburg",
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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I drive on the Joe Slovo highway off-ramp heading to the east of Joburg with gritted teeth and biting my lip. Once, taking an Uber to Victoria Yards in Lorentzville, the driver, who hadn’t been there before, told me on Bertrams Road, “This place looks like that war place.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He meant Ukraine, which Russia had just attacked, and that was all over the news.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was only a tiny exaggeration with the potholed roads and abandoned houses. The underpass was a tip and the streets were in disrepair and dangerous.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The inner-city area, which was the edge of the old city, had rewilded. But thanks to Nandos founder Robbie Brozin and his wing-woman Bea Swanepoel and her team at </span><a href=\"https://www.jozimyjozi.com/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jozi My Jozi</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, working with the better angels of the city, there’s been a mighty fast renaissance.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2338198 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/e3300d16-6a99-46db-ac1c-2550f3fd7fa2.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" /> <em>The roads from Ponte in Hillbrow past the Ellis Park stadium have been repaired and cleaned by the Johannesburg Roads Agency and Pikitup. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2338202 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/9b646538-6621-4bd3-800f-8a0d85e3cfd0.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" /> <em>Stephen du Preez of Localabode, a precinct management company, says 380 streetlights have been repaired and 132 defects like paving, potholes and back-filling (of holes dug by Johannesburg Water after pipe-bursts) completed. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Look at the highway underpass now: the bridge has been decorated by a mosaic artist collective. I’ve never seen it so clean. As the images show, the roads from Ponte in Hillbrow past the Ellis Park stadium have been repaired and cleaned by the Johannesburg Roads Agency and Pikitup.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those who commute regularly know it hasn’t looked like this in years. Stephen du Preez of Localabode, a precinct management company, says 380 streetlights have been repaired and 132 defects like paving, potholes and back-filling (of holes dug by Johannesburg Water after pipe-bursts) completed.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">City Power has installed solar streetlights. The project began in July on Nelson Mandela Day, when thousands of volunteers picked up tons of waste, moving from Ellis Park to Hillbrow. The public-private sector task team, organised by city manager Floyd Brink, has since met every Monday at Ellis Park to manage the change.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2338207\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG-6184.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg Ellis Park\" width=\"1218\" height=\"1624\" /> <em>The clean-up was book-ended between celebrating Nelson Mandela Day on 18 July and welcoming Siya Kolisi and the Boks, who play the All Blacks on 31 August. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2338210\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/8c6e209f-11cc-488f-af3a-f11b682af811.jpg\" alt=\"boks game Ellis Park\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1020\" /> <em>The cleaned-up Ellis Park sports precinct. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2338206 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG-6162.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg ellis park\" width=\"1792\" height=\"1131\" /> <em>The Ellis Park sports precinct has been cleaned up. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A WhatsApp group was started where problem areas were photographed and posted for quick fixes. The city’s management entities – City Power, Johannesburg Water, the Johannesburg Roads Agency and Pikitup – never work closely together, and WhatsApp is a test case for forging better partnerships.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The clean-up was book-ended between celebrating Nelson Mandela Day on 18 July and welcoming Siya Kolisi and the Boks, who play the All Blacks on 31 August. The game was a hard deadline of the sort South Africans do well to gather forces.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2338200 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/6f737233-f3fb-4710-ae2e-95a6d378f74d.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg ellis park\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" /> <em>The city’s management entities – City Power, Johannesburg Water, the Johannesburg Roads Agency and Pikitup – never work closely together, and WhatsApp is a test case for forging better partnerships. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2338199 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ef99f811-1cf8-4503-b6a3-51113a77839e.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg ellis park\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" /> <em>The cleaned-up Ellis Park sports precinct with mended paving and upgraded streetlights. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2338203 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/788ae72d-7626-4923-9a6b-77763cafb188.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg ellis park\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" /> <em>Broken paving has been replaced and the upgraded streetlights provide good illumination. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 2010 Soccer World Cup gleaned the exact energy needed to get things done. Like the part of the city it is located in, the Ellis Park sports precinct has seen better days. It was rough around the edges and unsafe.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But that, too, has been cleaned up, as the images show. When I visited at the weekend, the broken paving had been replaced and the streetlights had changed.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2338209\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG-6199.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg park station\" width=\"1260\" height=\"1680\" /> <em>Park Station is gleaming and can be the gateway to Africa rather than the nightmare it had descended into. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2338208\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG-6196.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg\" width=\"1260\" height=\"1680\" /> <em>Fans can jump on a Gautrain to Park Station and then get on the metro line to Ellis Park Station. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2338211 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG-6161.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg\" width=\"1260\" height=\"1680\" /> <em>Thanks to Nando’s founder Robbie Brozin and his wing-woman Bea Swanepoel and her team at Jozi My Jozi, working with the better angels of the city, there’s been a mighty fast renaissance. (Photo: Supplied)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Gautrain and Prasa have rapidly assembled an inter-nodal service to get fans from Park Station to Ellis Park in three minutes. On a test, it lived up to the promise. Fans could jump on a Gautrain to Park Station and then get on the metro line to Ellis Park Station.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The station was fixed for the game in seven days. Our country, which takes ages to get from A to B on anything, fixed a station and arranged a working connection in a week.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Park Station is gleaming and can be the gateway to Africa rather than the nightmare it had descended into.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the weekend, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said this was the planned future for public transport: seamless transitions from taxi to Gautrain, train, and bus to get places. The provincial and metro governments had to form a quick working partnership with various departments, such as Gautrain and Prasa, to achieve this. They did so. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you know if it will be sustained?</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick will check back in 100 days, but Mayor Dada Morero wants to use the fix as a test case for the entire inner city, which is struggling. The Urban East Alliance, the partnership formed to fix the area, will take over day-to-day management, says Du Preez, to keep up the momentum. </span><b>DM</b>",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I drive on the Joe Slovo highway off-ramp heading to the east of Joburg with gritted teeth and biting my lip. Once, taking an Uber to Victoria Yards in Lorentzville, the driver, who hadn’t been there before, told me on Bertrams Road, “This place looks like that war place.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He meant Ukraine, which Russia had just attacked, and that was all over the news.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was only a tiny exaggeration with the potholed roads and abandoned houses. The underpass was a tip and the streets were in disrepair and dangerous.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The inner-city area, which was the edge of the old city, had rewilded. But thanks to Nandos founder Robbie Brozin and his wing-woman Bea Swanepoel and her team at </span><a href=\"https://www.jozimyjozi.com/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jozi My Jozi</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, working with the better angels of the city, there’s been a mighty fast renaissance.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2338198\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"960\"]<img class=\"wp-image-2338198 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/e3300d16-6a99-46db-ac1c-2550f3fd7fa2.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" /> <em>The roads from Ponte in Hillbrow past the Ellis Park stadium have been repaired and cleaned by the Johannesburg Roads Agency and Pikitup. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2338202\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"960\"]<img class=\"wp-image-2338202 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/9b646538-6621-4bd3-800f-8a0d85e3cfd0.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" /> <em>Stephen du Preez of Localabode, a precinct management company, says 380 streetlights have been repaired and 132 defects like paving, potholes and back-filling (of holes dug by Johannesburg Water after pipe-bursts) completed. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Look at the highway underpass now: the bridge has been decorated by a mosaic artist collective. I’ve never seen it so clean. As the images show, the roads from Ponte in Hillbrow past the Ellis Park stadium have been repaired and cleaned by the Johannesburg Roads Agency and Pikitup.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those who commute regularly know it hasn’t looked like this in years. Stephen du Preez of Localabode, a precinct management company, says 380 streetlights have been repaired and 132 defects like paving, potholes and back-filling (of holes dug by Johannesburg Water after pipe-bursts) completed.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">City Power has installed solar streetlights. The project began in July on Nelson Mandela Day, when thousands of volunteers picked up tons of waste, moving from Ellis Park to Hillbrow. The public-private sector task team, organised by city manager Floyd Brink, has since met every Monday at Ellis Park to manage the change.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2338207\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1218\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2338207\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG-6184.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg Ellis Park\" width=\"1218\" height=\"1624\" /> <em>The clean-up was book-ended between celebrating Nelson Mandela Day on 18 July and welcoming Siya Kolisi and the Boks, who play the All Blacks on 31 August. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2338210\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1600\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2338210\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/8c6e209f-11cc-488f-af3a-f11b682af811.jpg\" alt=\"boks game Ellis Park\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1020\" /> <em>The cleaned-up Ellis Park sports precinct. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2338206\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1792\"]<img class=\"wp-image-2338206 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG-6162.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg ellis park\" width=\"1792\" height=\"1131\" /> <em>The Ellis Park sports precinct has been cleaned up. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A WhatsApp group was started where problem areas were photographed and posted for quick fixes. The city’s management entities – City Power, Johannesburg Water, the Johannesburg Roads Agency and Pikitup – never work closely together, and WhatsApp is a test case for forging better partnerships.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The clean-up was book-ended between celebrating Nelson Mandela Day on 18 July and welcoming Siya Kolisi and the Boks, who play the All Blacks on 31 August. The game was a hard deadline of the sort South Africans do well to gather forces.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2338200\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"960\"]<img class=\"wp-image-2338200 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/6f737233-f3fb-4710-ae2e-95a6d378f74d.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg ellis park\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" /> <em>The city’s management entities – City Power, Johannesburg Water, the Johannesburg Roads Agency and Pikitup – never work closely together, and WhatsApp is a test case for forging better partnerships. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2338199\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"960\"]<img class=\"wp-image-2338199 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ef99f811-1cf8-4503-b6a3-51113a77839e.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg ellis park\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" /> <em>The cleaned-up Ellis Park sports precinct with mended paving and upgraded streetlights. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2338203\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"960\"]<img class=\"wp-image-2338203 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/788ae72d-7626-4923-9a6b-77763cafb188.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg ellis park\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" /> <em>Broken paving has been replaced and the upgraded streetlights provide good illumination. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 2010 Soccer World Cup gleaned the exact energy needed to get things done. Like the part of the city it is located in, the Ellis Park sports precinct has seen better days. It was rough around the edges and unsafe.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But that, too, has been cleaned up, as the images show. When I visited at the weekend, the broken paving had been replaced and the streetlights had changed.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2338209\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1260\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2338209\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG-6199.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg park station\" width=\"1260\" height=\"1680\" /> <em>Park Station is gleaming and can be the gateway to Africa rather than the nightmare it had descended into. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2338208\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1260\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2338208\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG-6196.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg\" width=\"1260\" height=\"1680\" /> <em>Fans can jump on a Gautrain to Park Station and then get on the metro line to Ellis Park Station. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2338211\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1260\"]<img class=\"wp-image-2338211 size-full\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG-6161.jpg\" alt=\"boks game eastern johannesburg\" width=\"1260\" height=\"1680\" /> <em>Thanks to Nando’s founder Robbie Brozin and his wing-woman Bea Swanepoel and her team at Jozi My Jozi, working with the better angels of the city, there’s been a mighty fast renaissance. (Photo: Supplied)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Gautrain and Prasa have rapidly assembled an inter-nodal service to get fans from Park Station to Ellis Park in three minutes. On a test, it lived up to the promise. Fans could jump on a Gautrain to Park Station and then get on the metro line to Ellis Park Station.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The station was fixed for the game in seven days. Our country, which takes ages to get from A to B on anything, fixed a station and arranged a working connection in a week.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Park Station is gleaming and can be the gateway to Africa rather than the nightmare it had descended into.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the weekend, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said this was the planned future for public transport: seamless transitions from taxi to Gautrain, train, and bus to get places. The provincial and metro governments had to form a quick working partnership with various departments, such as Gautrain and Prasa, to achieve this. They did so. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you know if it will be sustained?</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick will check back in 100 days, but Mayor Dada Morero wants to use the fix as a test case for the entire inner city, which is struggling. The Urban East Alliance, the partnership formed to fix the area, will take over day-to-day management, says Du Preez, to keep up the momentum. </span><b>DM</b>",
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The roads from Ponte in Hillbrow past the Ellis Park stadium have been repaired and cleaned by the Johannesburg Roads Agency and Pikitup. (Photo: Supplied)
Stephen du Preez of Localabode, a precinct management company, says 380 streetlights have been repaired and 132 defects like paving, potholes and back-filling (of holes dug by Johannesburg Water after pipe-bursts) completed. (Photo: Supplied)
The clean-up was book-ended between celebrating Nelson Mandela Day on 18 July and welcoming Siya Kolisi and the Boks, who play the All Blacks on 31 August. (Photo: Supplied)
The cleaned-up Ellis Park sports precinct. (Photo: Supplied)
The Ellis Park sports precinct has been cleaned up. (Photo: Supplied)
The city’s management entities – City Power, Johannesburg Water, the Johannesburg Roads Agency and Pikitup – never work closely together, and WhatsApp is a test case for forging better partnerships. (Photo: Supplied)
The cleaned-up Ellis Park sports precinct with mended paving and upgraded streetlights. (Photo: Supplied)
Broken paving has been replaced and the upgraded streetlights provide good illumination. (Photo: Supplied)
Park Station is gleaming and can be the gateway to Africa rather than the nightmare it had descended into. (Photo: Supplied)
Fans can jump on a Gautrain to Park Station and then get on the metro line to Ellis Park Station. (Photo: Supplied)
Thanks to Nando’s founder Robbie Brozin and his wing-woman Bea Swanepoel and her team at Jozi My Jozi, working with the better angels of the city, there’s been a mighty fast renaissance. (Photo: Supplied)