Tragedy of a decaying city

A has since 1994 been in slow but steady decline, aside from a sunny interlude of brisk economic growth under former president Thabo Mbeki. It is not contested, even by ANC supporters, that by virtually every important political, social and economic statistical measure we have gone backwards.

- William Saunderson-Meyer

But a series of snapshots, capturing change over time can be a more vivid way to comprehend the scale of the loss. This might explain why a series of posts on X has, over the past few weeks, captured public attention.

The Jozi vs Jozi (@jozivsjozi) account, using the Street View function of Google Maps, each day juxtaposes then and now pictures of the same slice of Joburg roadside real estate. TimesLive, which tracked down the account holder, who chose to remain anonymous, reports he was motivated by disappointment at how SA's economically most important city had "devolved" in provision of basic services and crumbling infrastructure.

The "then" pictures, mostly from 2010-2013, and the "now" pictures, a year or two ago, have geotags that identify the exact spot where they were taken. It's not a pretty picture.