From Art Miles to Mayoral Ambitions: Johannesburg's Tale of Two Revivals
As entrepreneur Aubrey Moloto transforms Melville through community-driven art initiatives, former mayor Herman Mashaba eyes a political return to lead Johannesburg, offering contrasting visions for urban renewal.
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The story of Johannesburg's urban transformation is being written on two distinct canvases. In Melville's tree-lined streets, a grassroots cultural revival unfolds through paint and community spirit. Across town, in the corridors of political power, a familiar figure plots his return to City Hall with promises of municipal redemption.
Aubrey Moloto stands at the intersection of art and activism in Melville, the bohemian suburb that has long served as Johannesburg's creative conscience. As the architect behind the new Melville Art Mile, Moloto—a writer, videographer, and entrepreneur—has harnessed what Daily Maverick describes as the neighbourhood's distinctive "community spirit" to spark a "vibrant street revival." His work represents a quieter form of urban development, one that measures success not in infrastructure budgets but in transformed streetscapes and renewed civic pride.
The Art Mile emerged from a recognition that Melville's character, forged over decades by artists, musicians, and independent thinkers, required active stewardship rather than passive preservation. Moloto's approach channels local energy into visible public art, creating a cultural corridor that simultaneously celebrates the suburb's heritage and reimagines its future. This model of change—organic, community-led, and rooted in place—offers a counterpoint to the top-down governance that has often characterised Johannesburg's development trajectory.
That trajectory now faces another potential inflection point. Herman Mashaba, who served as Johannesburg's mayor from 2016 to 2019, has been named ActionSA's mayoral candidate for the upcoming Local Government Elections. His declaration carries the weight of unfinished business. "Without Johannesburg working, the country doesn't work," Mashaba told eNCA, framing his return as a matter of national urgency rather than personal ambition.
Mashaba's previous tenure remains contested territory in the city's political memory. Supporters credit him with bringing private-sector discipline to municipal management and confronting entrenched corruption. Critics point to service delivery failures and his confrontational style, which ultimately led to his resignation from the Democratic Alliance. His return under the ActionSA banner represents both continuity and rupture—the same leader, a different vehicle, and a city transformed by three years of subsequent governance challenges.
The contrast between Moloto's cultural intervention and Mashaba's political ambition illuminates a fundamental tension in urban development. One builds from the street level, trusting communities to define and create their own renewal. The other operates from the mayoral office, wielding institutional power to reshape systems and redirect resources. Neither approach alone has proven sufficient to address Johannesburg's layered challenges of inequality, infrastructure decay, and social fragmentation.
Melville's experience suggests that sustainable urban transformation requires the patient work of community building that Moloto exemplifies. The Art Mile doesn't solve load-shedding or fix potholes, but it strengthens the social fabric that enables collective action on harder problems. It demonstrates that revival begins when residents see themselves as agents rather than subjects of change.
Yet Mashaba's argument also holds force. Municipal government controls the levers that determine whether water flows, refuse gets collected, and streets remain safe. Without functional city administration, even the most vibrant community initiatives operate within constraints of failing infrastructure and depleted public services. The question facing Johannesburg isn't whether it needs grassroots creativity or effective governance, but how to achieve both simultaneously.
As the local government elections approach, these parallel narratives of urban renewal will test different theories of change. Mashaba will campaign on his track record and vision for metropolitan management, promising to restore the city's status as South Africa's economic engine. Meanwhile, projects like the Melville Art Mile will continue their quieter work of neighbourhood transformation, proving that change also happens one wall, one street, one community at a time.
The city that emerges from this election cycle will be shaped by both forces—the ballot box decisions about who governs, and the daily choices about how communities invest in their own spaces. Johannesburg's future depends on finding leaders who understand that these approaches complement rather than compete, and that the distance between an art mile and a mayoral office might be shorter than the city's geography suggests.