more of johannesburgs "world class" conditions?

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The_Pumpkin_King

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Johannesburg - At least 30 000 people are living in 45 derelict buildings in the Johannesburg Central Business District (CBD), Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) said on Wednesday.

"MSF has independently identified 45 such buildings in the inner city where an estimated 30 000 people are staying in appalling living conditions," said MSF Johannesburg field co-ordinator Sara Hjalmarson.

She said these represented only a handful of an estimated 1 000 buildings in Johannesburg that were derelict and being operated by gangs and building hijackers.

R50 a day rent

"These spaces are overcrowded with subdivided rooms in warren-like conditions, there is very poor or non-existent sanitation, people have difficult or no access to water, and they lack proper waste management and disposal."

Despite these conditions, hijackers and gangs were charging as much as R50 a day in rent or R750 a month.

These living conditions often led to poor health. MSF's clinic next to the Central Methodist Church once serviced primarily Zimbabwean migrants but over 70% of their patients now come from derelict buildings in the CBD.

"The main diagnoses at the MSF clinic are respiratory tract infections, diarrhoea, gastro-intestinal conditions, skin conditions and stress-related ailments," said Hjalmarson.

"Most of the diseases treated in the clinic are directly linked to unhygienic and overcrowded living conditions."

The City of Johannesburg as well as the Gauteng department of community safety have committed to tackling the scourge of building hijackers and derelict buildings. However, this meant that residents were often evicted without other accommodation options.

Evictions

According to MSF, four buildings had experienced evictions in the past nine months by police or the Red Ants. Each building had between 700 and 1 200 people living inside.

"MSF treated several residents injured during those evictions for severe bruising and open wounds received from the beatings with sticks and from rubber bullets," said Hjalmarson.

She added that because the evicted people's belongings were thrown into a pile, many of the clinic's patients lose their medication, including much-need antiretrovirals.

"Days after the eviction, hundreds of people including pregnant women, children and people in critical medical condition, were lying on the pavement in the middle of the city with no access to basic necessities like toilets or proper food [and] exposed to weather conditions," said Hjalmarson.

She was also "alarmed" by the "high rates" of tuberculosis (TB) cases.

In the last six months, 500 people had been tested for TB with 10% of them testing positive.

MSF head of mission Mickael le Paih said his organisation was working with the local department of health to tackle the lack of health care in the CBD.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/30-000-in-derelict-Joburg-buildings-20100512

- SAPA
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:rolleyes:
 
Yeah I laughed out loudly in my car when I heard on 5FM some fool saying Joburg compares to world class cities such as San Fransisco and Los Angeles.
 
Slootvreter said:
Yeah I laughed out loudly in my car when I heard on 5FM some fool saying Joburg compares to world class cities such as San Fransisco and Los Angeles.
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Laugh no more

http://www.saje.net/site/c.hkLQJcMUKrH/b.2723463/k.20B3/LAs_Hidden_Public_Health_Crisis.htm said:
Shame Of The City
How Slumlords are Causing a Major Public Health Threat
In Los Angeles (and what SAJE and our partners are doing about it).

One of the lesser-known facts about slum housing is its relationship to gentrification--as property values in working-class communities skyrocket, slum-housing conditions actually get worse.

Before we explain how this works, it is important to define our terms: slum housing and slumlord.

Slum housing is often apartment rental housing that does not meet building code laws for an extended period of time, jeopardizing the health and safety of tenants who live in the building.

Slumlords are people who produce these conditions. They are a criminal class of landlord whose business plan depends on collecting rents without making repairs. Along with this behavior, many slumlords milk equity from their buildings without reinvesting a cent. This, in turn, causes blight and disinvestment in our city's neighborhoods.

Although only about 1% of Los Angeles landlords fit this definition, their holdings are vast, impacting many thousands of Los Angeles residents, creating unhealthy conditions that ultimately impacts public health for everyone in the city.

Here are five reasons why L.A. slumlords are making more money with worse buildings than ever before:

The overall housing crisis: The lack of home ownership opportunities in Los Angeles has pushed middle and upper income people into the high-end rental market, creating an apartment, loft, and condo boom at the top of the economic ladder, and a vacuum at the bottom.
A sheltered market: When thousands of people cannot afford current L.A. housing prices, many are forced to live in substandard buildings--the only housing that they can afford. This creates a "sheltered market" for slumlords, who are guaranteed a lot of business because their tenants simply have no place else to go.
Opportunities to flip buildings: To take advantage of the hot real estate market, some unscrupulous landlords simply stop making any repairs to their buildings because they plan to sell it to the highest bidder who will just convert or tear down the building to produce something more upscale.
Really bad conditions force tenants out: Many buyers prefer to have their buildings "delivered vacant" and even include this language in their escrow. One favorite strategy that slumlords use to push people out is to make bad building conditions worse--turning off water, electricity, letting sewers and plumbing overflow--as a form of harassment.
The legal system favors slumlords over tenants: The legal system for addressing these issues consists of an unlevel playing field. While slumlords always have legal representation, low-income tenants on their own rarely do, which is why SAJE's strategic alliances are so important.
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Many countries advertise their capital cities as world class, I think its pretty standard procedure to increase tourism so you shouldn't be too disappointed when our government does it as well. Just google slum areas around Manchester, New York and Los Angeles, they are world class cities but I think you'll be very surprised to know that their conditions are equal, if not worse than Johannesburg :)
 
Their conditions are not equal or worse then those in Johannesburg, I think you need to re-read the article, first taking the blinkers off. These buildings don't even have power.
 
Nothxkbi said:
Many countries advertise their capital cities as world class, I think its pretty standard procedure to increase tourism so you shouldn't be too disappointed when our government does it as well. Just google slum areas around Manchester, New York and Los Angeles, they are world class cities but I think you'll be very surprised to know that their conditions are equal, if not worse than Johannesburg :)
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Ummm.... None of the city's you mention are capitals.

If you want rate cities here's a useful analysis.

Top 50 quality of living ranking for cities worldwide

Vienna, Austria (1st)
Zurich, Switzerland (2nd)
Geneva, Switzerland (3rd )
Vancouver, Canada (tied 4th)
Auckland, New Zealand (tied 4th)

DUSSELDORF, GERMANY (6)
MUNICH, GERMANY (7)
FRANKFURT, GERMANY (8)
BERN, SWITZERLAND (9)
SYDNEY, Australia (10)

I personally couldn't live in anything lower than a top 10 city.
 
Nothxkbi said:
Many countries advertise their capital cities as world class, I think its pretty standard procedure to increase tourism so you shouldn't be too disappointed when our government does it as well. Just google slum areas around Manchester, New York and Los Angeles, they are world class cities but I think you'll be very surprised to know that their conditions are equal, if not worse than Johannesburg :)
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you need to buy a map, seriously, none of the ones you mentioned are capitals and how do you not know Bloemfontein is the capital of the judiciary, Cape Town is the legislative capital, and Pretoria is the administrative capital. Congratulations, out of the seven biggest cities in the country you could have named either of the three and you still failed
 
If anyone wants to get an idea of how bad it is, watch louis theroux law and disorder in Johannesburg...it's pretty messy....looks worse than Indian slums, but just in buildings.
 
The_Pumpkin_King said:
you need to buy a map, seriously, none of the ones you mentioned are capitals and how do you not know Bloemfontein is the capital of the judiciary, Cape Town is the legislative capital, and Pretoria is the administrative capital. Congratulations, out of the seven biggest cities in the country you could have named either of the three and you still failed
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Yes I realise they are not capitals, I've lived abroad half my life so I do not need a map but thanks for the tip!

I'm still not following your point about failing sorry, but you have to admit that Johannesburg with its world class status, is not so much different from many other world class cities, capitals or not. If you haven't realised that, you really should get out and travel more. Some of the most stunning cities like LA or even Rio have very dangerous, dirty and slummy neighbourhoods, well on a par with Joburg.

I think perfectly normal for a country to try and up the status' of their cities and try to boost tourism, it happeneds all the time and Joburg is no different.
 
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Nothxkbi said:
Yes I realise they are not capitals, I've lived abroad half my life so I do not need a map but thanks for the tip!

I'm still not following your point about failing sorry, but you have to admit that Johannesburg with its world class status, is not so much different from many other world class cities, capitals or not. If you haven't realised that, you really should get out and travel more. Some of the most stunning cities like LA or even Rio have very dangerous, dirty and slummy neighbourhoods, well on a par with Joburg.
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And some don't.

Johannesburg is by no stretch of the imagination "Stunning", Capetown maybe.
 
Every city on this planet has slums. Get some stamps in those passports before you write off your own folks. Johannesburg as the economic powerhouse of Africa is going to attract a lot of desperate people looking to make something of their lives. The facts these slums exist is a testament to the fact that many more people want to live in Joburg than it needs. There is nothing unique about slums in the slightest.
 
alloytoo said:
Ummm.... None of the city's you mention are capitals.

If you want rate cities here's a useful analysis.

Top 50 quality of living ranking for cities worldwide

Vienna, Austria (1st)
Zurich, Switzerland (2nd)
Geneva, Switzerland (3rd )
Vancouver, Canada (tied 4th)
Auckland, New Zealand (tied 4th)

DUSSELDORF, GERMANY (6)
MUNICH, GERMANY (7)
FRANKFURT, GERMANY (8)
BERN, SWITZERLAND (9)
SYDNEY, Australia (10)

I personally couldn't live in anything lower than a top 10 city.
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Which one do you live?
 
JohnGalt said:
Every city on this planet has slums. Get some stamps in those passports before you write off your own folks. Johannesburg as the economic powerhouse of Africa is going to attract a lot of desperate people looking to make something of their lives. The facts these slums exist is a testament to the fact that many more people want to live in Joburg than it needs. There is nothing unique about slums in the slightest.
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ah, so the slums make it stunning?
 
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