[imagesource: Twitter / @CityofJoburgZA]
Large parts of Joburg have been without power and water for much of the week.
Residents of Hout Bay can relate, having also endured a water outage that lasted days (in the midst of load shedding) and caused untold meltdowns on social media.
Sometimes all you can do is laugh which is the tactic usually employed by the City of Joburg’s Twitter account.
It’s become synonymous with wisecracks and finding the humour in any situation, although a video tweeted yesterday has been met with a very mixed reaction.
We can tell from the timestamp the video is from 2019. It’s not clear where the footage is from, but it doesn’t look like South Africa given which side of the road the cars are driving on.
WATCH: In life, you must wake up ⚠️ #JoburgRoadSafety ^GZ pic.twitter.com/Q4NKMQuoxj
— City of Joburg (@CityofJoburgZA) November 18, 2021
What’s all the fuss about? Well, people are saying this is a case of blaming the public when the real failing lies elsewhere.
TimesLIVE picked out some reactions:
Why are you blaming a pedestrian for coming under attack? Do you think it is appropriate to treat citizens who expect to be kept safe by police and the state like this?
— Lady Vaxx-a-lot (@Aneshree6) November 18, 2021
WTF? Why are you posting this – do you think its funny? Do you think its OK that our streets are not safe? I am really bewildered? Please explain?
— MPDZA (@mpdjhb) November 18, 2021
This here is also a prime example of how NOT to do PR 🤦🏽♂️ https://t.co/zoP9qzCRuP
— Chad Kelly-Klate (@CKlatey) November 18, 2021
We take pride in having a city that is unsafe to walk at night. Is that the message City of Joburg? https://t.co/4ccXVuomHV
— CdL🇿🇦🏳️🌈 (@cdelange_) November 19, 2021
They really said “It’s your fault if you get robbed or kidnapped. Must be on the lookout.”
God put his strongest soldiers in South Africa. https://t.co/QrnCBempi7
— Michael Scott (@luqmaanrawat72) November 18, 2021
Living in South Africa is like involuntarily signing up for the squid games https://t.co/PrNoQEqggn
— Lulu the organ donor (@VhoLulu) November 18, 2021
I don’t think it’s a great look, makes the City seem like they’re victim blaming. Like if you’re going to use your own streets you deserve what’s coming to you? Watching a man run for his life isn’t entertaining especially when your work involves what happens during these attacks https://t.co/UyvNLDwg06
— Alex Sweet Patrick (@IamAlexSweet) November 18, 2021
No, in this life we shouldn’t have to be running for our lives at every corner we take. https://t.co/sKD21KtILl
— Heidi Giokos (@HeidiGiokos) November 18, 2021
I’ve lost count of the number of videos I’ve seen of people being robbed in and around Jozi.
Perhaps tweeting that people should “wake up” when so many live with nightmarish levels of crime was a pretty poor take.
[source:timeslive]
