Silverton at the Brink: A Community Held Hostage by Collapse

I have lived in Silverton for years — long enough to remember when this suburb on the eastern edge of Pretoria still felt predictable.

Stable. Functional. Long enough to remember when thunderstorms meant the comforting roll of summer rain, not the quiet dread that the lights may soon flicker out again.

But today, our relationship with the weather has changed. We no longer simply watch the clouds gather — we brace for impact. Because in Silverton, ordinary rainstorms now mean extraordinary disruption.

Last week, my neighbourhood endured four power cuts and three water cuts in a matter of days. For many residents citywide, this has become the new rhythm of life: load-shedding layered with infrastructure failure layered with municipal dysfunction. But for places like Silverton — one of Pretoria’s oldest suburbs, with infrastructure that has far outlived its intended lifespan — the effects land harder, last longer, and cut deeper.

This is no longer an inconvenience.
It is a breaking point.

And it deserves to be spoken about with honesty, dignity, and urgency.

When Ordinary Life Becomes Impossible

In a working suburb like Silverton, outages hit at the heart of daily survival. Families wake up unsure whether water will flow from the tap. Mothers boil kettles on gas burners to fill buckets so children can wash before school. Elderly residents fill plastic containers "just in case." Small businesses run on shoestring budgets and cannot afford sophisticated backup systems. People who work remotely — as many South Africans do today — struggle to maintain any sense of normal productivity.

I am one of them. As an online English teacher and entrepreneur, my livelihood depends on two things: electricity and water. When either one collapses, my income collapses with it. When both collapse — as often happens during stormy summer weeks — life becomes unworkable. Students cannot be taught; meetings cannot be held; lessons cannot be delivered. Every disruption costs money. Every cut chips away at dignity. Every hour without power is an hour of lost earning, lost planning, lost opportunity.

This is not unique to Silverton. It is happening across Pretoria — and across the country.

But Silverton is a particularly stark case.
Because Silverton is old.
Its pipes are old.
Its substations are old.
Its storm drains are old.
Its power lines are old.
And almost none of it has been replaced.

Instead, we get temporary fixes — bopa in colloquial Sepedi/Setswana/Sesotho — meaning “to tie or patch something temporarily so it holds for a short time.” A leaking pipe is not replaced; it is tied, patched, clamped. A burst line is not upgraded; it is wrapped. A transformer is not replaced; it is coaxed back into life with short-term bandages.

Even a child knows you cannot fix a sinking ship by patching tiny holes. Yet this is how our neighbourhood is managed: reactive, not proactive; patchwork, not planning; short-term survival over long-term stability.

The Emotional and Psychological Toll

Residents are tired.
Bone-tired.
Not just from the inconvenience, but from the uncertainty.

Routine is the backbone of family life. Outages shatter that routine. Children struggle to complete homework in the dark. Remote workers try to meet deadlines while rushing between coffee shops, generators, or neighbours’ homes. Refrigerators defrost. Food spoils. Tempers rise. People sleep poorly. Alarms malfunction.

Anxiety grows in the background like mould in damp corners.

There is a quiet trauma that accumulates when a community lives in constant instability. It changes how people behave. It makes them irritable, edgy, hopeless. Productivity drops. Stress increases. The emotional cost is invisible but profound.

And it cuts across boundaries of race, class, age, and gender.
Everyone feels it.
Everyone pays.

The Financial Cost to a Fragile Community

Regular outages have well-documented economic consequences:

• Remote workers lose income.

• Small businesses lose customers.

• Shop owners and small business owners, already burdened by exorbitant rents charged by shopping centres, must now also shoulder the additional costs of private generators, diesel, repairs, and strengthened security.

• Residents pay more for food due to spoilage.

• Homeowners suffer appliance damage from power surges.

• Elderly and vulnerable residents face health risks when medical devices can’t operate.

• Schools lose teaching time.

• Restaurants lose stock and revenue.

When a suburb becomes unreliable, investors flee. Shops close. Rental prices rise but occupancy drops.
And the once-stable middle-class suburb begins to hollow out.

Silverton is not a poor suburb. But it is increasingly treated like one — forgotten, under-serviced, ignored.

And that neglect has a price.

Why Is This Happening? The Documented Causes

South Africans are not imagining things. The failures we are experiencing have been studied, published, documented, and reported on for years.

1. Municipal Mismanagement

The Auditor-General has repeatedly highlighted failures in metro governance: misallocated budgets, incomplete projects, unpaid debts, and deteriorating maintenance cycles. Infrastructure decays not because storms are stronger — but because systems are weaker.

2. Corruption and Tender Abuse

The term “state capture” barely scratches the surface. Across municipalities, tenders are awarded to unqualified contractors, inflated to obscene costs, or never completed at all. Pipes meant to last decades are installed with substandard material. Electrical components are purchased at triple the market price. Projects stall. Money evaporates.

3. Nepotism and Cadre Deployment

Positions requiring engineering expertise or technical competence are often filled by politically connected individuals with no relevant training. Many lied about qualifications; many more simply lack experience.

This is not speculation — numerous investigations, including the Zondo Commission, have exposed the scale of the problem.

When the people responsible for maintaining infrastructure do not know how to maintain infrastructure, decline is inevitable.

4. Brain Drain

Over the past 30 years, South Africa has lost thousands of highly skilled engineers, technicians, and specialists.
Why?
Because the job market increasingly rewards political loyalty above competence, and racial quotas above merit.
Many left not because they wanted to — but because they had no place left to use their skills.

When you hollow out a nation’s expertise, the nation crumbles.

5. Cable Theft and Criminal Syndicates
Another critical — and often underestimated — cause of outages is the rampant theft of copper electrical cables and infrastructure components. Criminal syndicates target substations, distribution boxes, streetlights, and underground lines, stripping neighbourhoods of vital wiring that cannot be replaced quickly.

Silverton, with its aging infrastructure and limited security presence, is especially vulnerable. Police visibility is low, private security is reactive rather than preventative, and many cases go unresolved. The result is predictable: sudden blackouts, dangerous live wires, delayed restoration times, and a spiralling repair bill that ultimately falls back on taxpayers.

6. Lack of Long-Term Planning

Replacing a 60-year-old water line should not require a disaster. Yet that is how our system works: crisis first, plan later. The result is predictable — infrastructure collapses constantly because it is never renewed.

What About the G20? What Did the World See?

Just three kilometres from my home, the CSIR hosted portions of recent G20 engagements.
World leaders arrived.
Motorcades glided through Pretoria East.
Conference halls buzzed with optimism and diplomacy.

But did they know that the surrounding suburbs were suffering outages?
Did they know that residents just a stone’s throw away were boiling water on gas stoves?
Probably not.

Because the conference centre undoubtedly had backup generators, water reserves, and fail-safe systems. It had to — the government could not risk a global embarrassment.

But therein lies the tragedy:
Our leaders protect their image more fiercely than they protect their citizens.

Trump’s Boycott & US Aid Withdrawal

Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s refusal to attend G20 engagements in South Africa — combined with the withdrawal of certain aid programmes — was partly rooted in Washington’s perception of South Africa’s governance instability and political alignment. These shifts sent a clear diplomatic message: South Africa is drifting away from global partners it once relied upon.

South Africa’s Anti-Israel, Pro-Palestine Position

International analysts have noted that South Africa’s increasingly adversarial posture toward Israel and the United States — including the filing of genocide charges after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack — has strained long-standing alliances. Whether one agrees or disagrees with South Africa’s position, it undeniably impacts global perceptions.

And that perception matters when a nation is viewed as unstable, unreliable, or ideologically extreme.

A Tale of Two Pretorias

Travel five kilometres west into Brooklyn, Waterkloof, or Menlo Park, and you enter a different Pretoria. There, outages exist — but with less frequency, shorter duration, and vastly quicker response times.
Why?

• Better infrastructure maintenance.

• Faster contractors.

• Greater political attention.

• Higher economic pressure from affluent residents and businesses.

Silverton is not given the same urgency.

It is treated as if it can cope with the inconvenience.
But we are not coping.
We are surviving — barely.

A Rich Country, A Poor Nation

It is tragic that South Africa — a land sitting on some of the richest mineral reserves on earth — has become a global symbol of potential wasted.

• 75% of the world’s gold once came from South Africa.

• We possess platinum, chromium, manganese, coal, and some of the largest natural reserves of strategic minerals.

• In the 1960s–1990s, South Africa had the strongest economy in Africa by a wide margin.

Yet today, South Africa has been overtaken by both Nigeria and Egypt in total GDP, a fact widely reported by global financial institutions.

We have gone from leading the continent to trailing it — not because we lacked resources, but because we squandered them.

What Words Like “Mamparra” Really Mean

In colloquial Afrikaans, 'mamparra' refers to someone foolish, incompetent, or utterly out of their depth — someone who bungles tasks repeatedly without learning. It is not a racial term; it is a behavioural one.

And sadly, this word increasingly describes the leadership culture permeating many sectors of our government:

Short-sighted.
Unqualified.
Self-enriching.
Unaccountable.

A nation cannot thrive when the people running it behave like 'mamparras'.

Walking Through Silverton: What I See Every Day

On my walks through the neighbourhood, the signs of decay are impossible to ignore.
Pipes tied together with makeshift straps.
Potholes filled by residents instead of city workers.
Burst drains left unattended.
Water flowing freely down streets while communities go dry.
Electrical cables patched and re-patched in quick fixes that barely hold.

And when residents call for help, their pleas often go unanswered or are met with polite dismissal. Some are blocked. Some are ignored. Many are simply exhausted from asking.

There was even a protest recently — a community forced to the streets because they had run out of options.
Since then, some residents feel targeted or punished.
Whether this is true or merely perceived, the feeling is real — and dangerous.

Because when citizens lose trust, they lose hope.
And when hope dies, democracy follows.

What This Decline Says About South Africa Today

The chaos we face in Silverton is not isolated. It is a microcosm of a broader national collapse.

We see:

• 60% unemployment among South Africans

• The worst education outcomes in Africa

• Escalating emigration rates

• Failing municipalities

• Declining public trust

• Infrastructure on the brink of total failure

We are witnessing a nation regressing at high speed — sliding backwards while pretending everything is “under control.”

But it is not under control.
We all know it.
And pretending otherwise is a luxury we can no longer afford.

Solutions: What Must Happen Now

This section must be firm — perhaps even harsh — because soft language will not fix a collapsing city.

1. Demand Accountability

Residents must insist that positions in technical departments — water, electricity, infrastructure — be filled by qualified engineers and professionals, not politically connected friends.

2. Depoliticise Municipal Utilities

Electricity, water, waste, and roads should be run by independent boards, audited annually, and shielded from party politics.

3. Infrastructure Renewal Deadlines

Pretoria needs a 10-year replacement plan for aging pipes, substations, and water lines — with published timelines and open tender processes.

4. Community Oversight

Residents should form neighbourhood infrastructure committees to monitor repairs, question delays, and report corruption.

5. Transparency in Procurement

Every tender should be public, every bid evaluated openly, and every contract audited.

6. Citizen Activism

Letters, petitions, media engagement, protests, and pressure must continue. Change comes from organised citizens, not passive ones.

7. Alternative Systems

Where possible:

• Solar installations

• Water tanks

• Generators

• Local cooperatives

These are not ideal — but they are lifelines while the system crumbles.

Silverton Deserves Better — and So Does South Africa

This is not a rant.
It is a plea.
A call for reason.
A call for competence.
A call for dignity.

Because Silverton — a community of families, workers, pensioners, entrepreneurs, and ordinary people — deserves the stability that any functional city should offer.

South Africa deserves it too.

We have the talent, the resources, the history, and the potential.
What we lack is leadership.

But leadership can be challenged.
Leadership can be changed.
Leadership can be held accountable.

If we, the residents, speak loudly.
If we speak collectively.
If we stop accepting “bopa” solutions and start demanding real ones.

This suburb has reached its breaking point.
But breaking points are turning points too.

A Final Thought

I am a white African, born here, raised here, and living here by choice. I walk these streets. I speak to those living in Silverton. I see the hardship daily. I have watched Silverton change, bend, and break — but I also know its resilience.

And that is why I am writing this:
Not to complain, but to awaken.
Not to shame, but to motivate.
Not to divide, but to unite a community ready for change.

Because if we do not speak now, we may not have a community left to fight for later.

Let this not be a quiet collapse.

Let it be the moment Silverton — and South Africa — finally stands up and demands better.

PS: My name is Henry Lilienfield, and for the past seven years I’ve worked full-time as an online English teacher, helping hundreds of adult learners improve their communication skills while running my own digital education business from Pretoria. I have taught more than 8,500 online lessons, mostly to Russian professionals, and have built a global client base despite the challenges of local infrastructure.

My broader background spans education, law, development studies, and two decades of teaching experience across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. I write about South African society, global culture, and the lived realities of ordinary people navigating a difficult and changing country.

© 2025 Henry Lilienfield. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or adaptation of this content is prohibited without written permission from the author.