It's easy to see why millions of South Africans have been drawn to this city, why across the continent, Johannesburg is seen as a place of opportunity. From Morocco up north to neighbouring Zimbabwe, continental cousins have trekked to Johannesburg where many complain that business is slow, but still better than home. Once you take the lift down to the pavements below, the cracks in the concrete jungle start to show and the postcard folds at the edges. The streets are dirty, buildings empty and the buses belch black smoke. In the suburbs and outlying business districts like Sandton and Roodepoort, they talk of meltdown.
Pristine streets are getting dirtier, the grass is overgrown, garbage is collected intermittently.
In many townships and squatter camps, the situation is far worse. In Alexandra, the council seems to have given up the ghost, if the overflowing toilets, blocked drains and stinking rubbish tips are anything to go by. The mining town has ballooned. Its politics have changed and now city government must provide services to a range of citizens. Three years of cumbersome new structures set up after the local election of 1995 have made things worse.