Stop helping!

The private sector is all too keen to jump in and help government fix its messes.

Dial Direct, for example, launched the “Pothole Brigade” in conjunction with the Gauteng Provincial Department of Roads and Transport and the Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA), in the “interest of public safety and urban pride”.

Another seemingly laudable initiative is Outsurance's Traffic Freeflow unit, which launched the 'pointsman project' it bills as “one of the most successful public-private initiatives to date in the country”. The project is run in collaboration with the JRA and the City of Johannesburg.

Now Nedbank has stepped into the fray to alleviate traffic congestion. The big green bank is sponsoring solar-powered traffic lights at key Sandton intersections, despite a state entity announcing three years ago that it would spend millions to keep lights on.

In January 2008, there were several news reports indicating the state-owned Central Energy had announced a countrywide drive to install solar-powered traffic lights at crucial intersections, to sort out the traffic jams that happen when the lights go out. According to the city's official Web site, more than 2 000 intersections were identified in Johannesburg alone. The JRA was helping locate key intersections, and would then be responsible for maintenance.

Goodness only knows what happened to those project plans. The last update I can find on the city's official Web site is from early 2009, when the JRA said a measly five intersections had been converted.

Now it seems, according to a 2010 press release from Nedbank, the bank will alleviate the city of its duty to keep traffic moving. Nedbank said it was supporting the “pilot” project in and around Sandton, where its head office is located.

The solar panels are rather easy to spot. They are all adorned by the bank's advertising. Interestingly, the bank is supporting five intersections, although I can't really say if these are the same five that the city is so proud of.

Private sector participation is not something we should be supporting.

Nicola Mawson, senior journalist, ITWeb

I too will abdicate the council of its responsibilities when I pay for a plumber to come in and stop the sewage flood that happens every time there is a big rainstorm, instead of taking Joburg Water to task over its inadequate storm water system.

With precedents such as these already having been set, it will be no time at all before someone offers to fix Joburg's billing crisis. Yet, private sector participation is not something we should be supporting, because it moves the state's burden onto our own shoulders.

While these interventions from the public sector - in conjunction with the relevant authorities - have been warmly welcomed, the real effect takes responsibility away from the council.

Think about it: whose job is it now to fill potholes? Dial Direct. And to make sure flashing-red robots are manned? Outsurance. And to keep other traffic lights working in busy city centres: Nedbank.

Yup - these problems used to belong to the City of Johannesburg, or Tshwane, or Ekurhuleni, or wherever these private companies have intervened. Now, they belong to the private sector.

I'm sure the rationale is sound. After all, a service that works, no matter how it got to that stage, will benefit all of us in some way. The question is, where does this sort of assistance stop and when does it become an abdication of responsibility to the private sector?

I pay taxes, as do the rest of you, for little things - roads that are not dodge-the-pothole experiences, traffic lights that are not Russian roulette games, accurate water and electricity accounts, and rubbish removal.

My concern is that, as a country, we are on a slippery slope to ending up having to do it ourselves. What's next - billing ourselves for our rates for the privilege of not getting service from the city?

We pay taxes precisely so government entities have funds with which to provide us with services. Those services include working traffic lights, roads without holes, correct bills and weekly rubbish removal.

Now South Africans are effectively paying twice for these services to be delivered: once through rates and taxes, and again when private corporations step in to fix the mess. The money these businesses spend must come from somewhere, and that somewhere is from clients' pockets.

Frankly, we may just as well privatise cities like Johannesburg, because at least that way we will only pay for the service once. And it may just get delivered, correctly, and on time.