Rubbish, blackouts and broken roads are putting the ANC's grip on South Africa's biggest city to the test in next week's local elections.
Johannesburg is the engine room of South African life, home to the communities that produce the country's hustle, its music and its sporting talent. Right now, those communities are fed up. A week before local elections, residents of Alexandra township say the basics of daily life are falling apart around them.
Walk through Alexandra and the problem is impossible to miss. Piles of rubbish line pavements and roads, rotting in the heat. Down at the Jukskei River, the banks are clogged with rubble and litter, and foul-smelling brown water pours out of a culvert. Streets like these are where young people kick balls, run routes and dream, and they are being left to decay.
Semadi Manganye runs Alexandra Water Warriors, an environmental NGO that organises river clean-ups and plants trees along the banks. He says residents are stuck in a never-ending cycle of failures. When the power isn't the issue, the water is. When the water is sorted, the waste piles up. It is a relentless run of challenges with no breathing room.
The big question is whether anger on the ground turns into votes against the ANC. Potholes, power cuts and uncollected garbage have become the scoreboard for how well the city is being run, and many residents feel the score is lopsided. Next week, they get to deliver their verdict.
