On 29 October 1989, more than 70,000 people packed FNB Stadium to welcome home Walter Sisulu and six others, freed from prison two weeks earlier. On 4 November, nobody's asking you to fill a stadium, just one little box. Bring a snack for the queue! Welcome to Melville Untold, the newsletter you can finish in the voting line.

In this week’s newsletter,

— Aubrey Moloto, Caroline Koma

Sponsored:

Around the hood this week, we're hearing the same sounds: no one knows who to vote for; some aren't sure they'll even vote. We didn't want to speak to anyone affiliated, so we chose a resident who reads council agendas for a living, the chair of the residents' association, and the man who's deeply involved in our civic issues on the ground. We're intentional about not influencing your vote. We want you to feel more confident walking into the voting station and know what impact you can actually make. So we've broken it all down and given you some nifty resources. Let’s get into it!

Check Your Station Before Wednesday 4 November

Registration closed in August, so that ship has sailed. You can still check where you're voting, though. Ward lines get redrawn as suburbs get denser. Julia Fish, who has spent years tracking Joburg's council, has watched neighbours land in new wards without even knowing it. "You're a completely different ward number, completely different councillor, completely different voting station," she says. In a local election, "you can only vote at your specific voting station. You will not be on the roll" anywhere else.

Look yourself up on elections.org.za and then see who's on your ward's ballot: Ward 87 has 53 candidates, off the IEC's certified list. Approved special voters go on Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 November. 4 November is a public holiday.

Two Ballots, And What Each One Does

In a metro like Joburg, you get two ballots. One is for your ward councillor; ours is Ward 87. The other one chooses a party. "It's not your second choice," Julia says. "It's the structure or party that you want to represent you."

Half of council is ward councillors. The other half comes off party lists. When the seats get shared out, both ballots count. So vote the same party twice and "you are effectively almost giving that party three votes": the ward seat, plus both ballots counting toward its share of council. Danny Nunes of the Melville Security Initiative is quite frank: "It's pointless voting for Party A on one form and Party B on another form."

Julia's view is that splitting is your call. One case where you'll split anyway: independent candidates only stand for wards, so if you back one, "you will have to vote for someone different on the party vote."

What A Ward Councillor Can And Can't Do

Julia's rule of thumb is to judge ward candidates on the job itself. A ward councillor "is supposed to be the bridge between the city and residents": open ward committee appointments, regular public meetings, and a "non-partisan channel to inform residents."

They can't directly solve the water problem. "They, as a ward councillor, cannot fix the local reservoir," she says. They can push for funds and watch the contractor. Our outgoing councillor, Kyle Jacobs, echoed this when we spoke to him in August: they get the most complaints, but have the least power.

Why The Small Parties Matter

If no party gets 50 plus one, you get a hung council, and budgets only pass when parties vote together. That's how a party with a handful of seats becomes a kingmaker. The MISTRA Coalitions Barometer maps how every coalition since 2021 has held up. Julia Fish reckons the shakiest coalitions are ones built from opposite ends of the values spectrum "to cut out" the biggest party, especially with "no formal agreement".

She still thinks new faces could help. The relationship between the two biggest parties in council "is toxic," she says, so "some fresh, different, people focused, community engaged, grassroots activated individuals could make a significant difference."

Pamina, an Auckland Park resident and one of yesterday's water protesters, sent a message to whoever wins: be "unapologetically obsessed with eliminating corruption."

Vote With Your Head

Darryl Gouws, a resident and chair of the Melville Residents Association, sent us an open letter with a simple plea: "vote with your head, not just your heart." Look past "political personalities, historical loyalties, campaign slogans," he writes, and ask who has "a track record of actually delivering services where they have held responsibility." In his words: "A manifesto is only as valuable as a party's ability to implement it."

To anyone thinking of sitting it out: "If you don't vote, you leave the decision about our city's future entirely in the hands of those who do." In 2021, only about 12 million of 26.2 million registered voters turned up. Darryl points to two elections from this past weekend. In Serbia on Sunday 25 October, a list born out of student protests won an outright majority on a 68.8% turnout. The same day, Lula won Brazil's runoff, with youth mobilisation credited for the win. "Political outcomes are not inevitable," Darryl writes.

Ten Minutes Of Homework

Julia's resource pick is News24's Manifesto Match, "almost like a dating site." You answer quick questions on what matters to you, and it ranks the parties whose manifestos match. Smartvote Joburg does something similar and rates itself as free, quick and politically neutral. Take both and compare. Then check your station on the IEC site.

Getting There On The Day

The MSI won't get into the actual politics. They're focused on planning for the day, "asking Beagle Watch to patrol the polling stations a bit more diligently" because of all the cars parked outside them. MSI and Beagle Watch will be checking in on the Melpark Primary School station often, and SAPS is deployed to every voting station.

Danny’s warning: the syndicates know it’s a public holiday too, and they know the cars will be parked outside the stations. Arm your alarm before you leave, and take an e-hailing ride if you can. Know the procedure before you queue: the IEC’s How To Vote page walks you through it.

And once you've voted, Die Pienk Kerk will throw in a free coffee with any breakfast on Wednesday 4 November. Just show proof that you voted.

From The Business Side

Jovana Korać of the Melville Business Association runs a hospitality business, and she hasn't had water in over a week. "Physical infrastructure and bureaucratic infrastructure are crumbling and impairing quality of life for every resident and business in the area," she says. She's still holding out for the ballot box: "I can only hope this is rock bottom and elections bring some much-needed change."

I Love Melville

So should Melville be optimistic? Julia should be "the most pessimistic person in the city of Joburg, because I know where all the skeletons are buried." She isn't. "The city would have collapsed a long time ago if it wasn't for the resilience and the community-based focus of the people who live here. The people who've remained know that this is something special." She points to "the people who are lining Main Road every few weeks to protest for water."

Marilyn Taylor, another protester who lives on 4th Avenue, agrees about the people. "There are so many different interesting people who live here," she says. "We all look out for each other in the end."

Julia's advice once the counting's done: "Remain active, remain engaged, remain educated, and hold the people that you've now voted for accountable." And support them.

Go vote on Wednesday 4 November, and take a neighbour. Then hit reply and tell us how it went. Do you feel optimistic about the outcome?

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For more updates as the week goes on, visit our Instagram page @snapson_7th or our Melville Pulse event calendar

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The day after we vote, the Melville Art Mile's back for its eleventh night, Thursday 5 November, 4 pm to 9 pm. On paper, it's the most different Mile in a while. Over 40 artists and vendors applied, and the list reads like a small festival.

On the walls: graphite portraits, oil pastels, gouache abstracts, figures in acrylic and gold leaf, oil paint on found materials, experimental photography, and Joburg drawn in ink.

On the street: a contemporary jazz five-piece, alternative rap and poetry, Afro-folk on cello and violin, and stand-up comedy. Around them, a night market of handmade candles, brass and copper jewellery, zines, vintage denim, a food truck and speciality coffee. The full programme drops on Monday 2 November.

Already locked in: M.A.H.U.B.O, the jazz five-piece; Overdose McKenzie, rapper, singer and poet; and Elca Jacobs' contemporary work alongside our poster artist Bertus van Rooy at Salute Café and a few more each day!

Three new stops join the route: Topdose Coffee at 75 4th Avenue, opposite 27 Boxes; The Artisan on the corner of 7th Street and 4th Avenue; and Salute Café. They join the regular degular, near permanent fixtures: Stokvel Gallery for their “last mile in a while”, ERF/350 Studios together with Resource, Hotel Hope, SIX Cocktail Bar, Picobella, Dala Dank, Realms Of Ra, Studio 79, Avalon Art and Indoni Arts House. 27 Boxes is the anchor point for the night market and live entertainment.

SAE, an international sound engineering institution, is running sound for the night. Black Crown ready-to-drink joins Old Buck Dry Gin on the drinks, and HustleNest, backed by Momentum, is launching a virtual version of the Melville Art Mile.

Three shuttles loop the route all evening this time: free with a R150 or R450 ticket, or pay per ride with the SnapScan code on board at R20 bucks a ride. And as usual, the route is secured by the MSI's Beagle Watch forces, with additional support from the MBA's Goni guards from the strip.

This month's incredible poster is a film picture of the Melville Mansions in silver chloride and cyanotype by Bertus van Rooy.

Book on Quicket:

Questions? Call me, Aubrey, on WhatsApp: 081 826 2904, or mail [email protected].

Residents gathered on the corner of Main Road and 4th Avenue yesterday, Wednesday 28 October, from 06:00 to 08:00, bottles in hand, to protest more than eight weeks without a steady water supply. SABC News was there as people from Melville, Westbury and Coronationville took to the streets again. eNCA covered it too. One resident told SABC: "They only send copy-and-paste updates while neglecting the ageing infrastructure that has seen years of government neglect."

We spotted Rise Mzansi councillor candidate Malik Daso holding a sign reading "Heads must roll at Johannesburg Water", and he thinks this approach works. "The people at Joburg Water, the people in city council, are very vulnerable to bad public opinion," he says. "It actually does affect them." Are we at rock bottom? "We're not at bottom yet, but we're getting close to there very quickly."

His message to anyone ready to give up: "The best cure for despair is action. If you sit at home and you just watch this thing [protest] without water in your taps, you're going to get more and more miserable."

Rand Water Turns The Tap Down

Rand Water says it's now managing how much water it sends to Joburg, so Joburg Water is shifting what it has between systems. Jonathan Thompson, DA councillor candidate, shared the update on 23 October and warned of "ongoing uncertainty about when water will be available."

Councillor Kyle Jacobs and other councillors on the Commando system are waiting to meet with JW about a possible supply timetable. Until then, store water when it's on! Anytime is tea time. (Or, no tea time!)

The Commando system reports for 23 to 25 October still show Hursthill 1 and 2 on bypass, with low pressure or no water in places. Check the latest report on the day.

Level 1 Restrictions Are On

Joburg Water put Level 1 water restrictions in place on 21 October. No watering gardens between 06:00 and 18:00, no filling swimming pools, and no hosepipes on cars or paving.

The Water Station Needs An Hour Of Your Time

The community water station at 80 1st Avenue gives out 50 litres per household. It runs on volunteers, and the Melville Residents Association says the pool is small. Volunteers join the WhatsApp group and pick one-hour slots from a daily poll.

What You Can Do This Week

Why It Keeps Happening

"The trouble with water is it's complicated," Prof. Mike Muller, engineer and former Director-General of Water Affairs, told us. Outages in Bez Valley, Bronkhorstspruit and Randburg hurt the same way but have different causes. "A lot of the infrastructure is really, really old and needs to be replaced," he says, and money that should have gone to maintenance went elsewhere. Fixing it will take years, strong political leadership and people who know the job. Prof. Muller says that a city that's open about what's going wrong keeps the people's trust.

The CREASS Pothole Party watch is on! We're on 40 of 100 bags of asphalt paid for. Up from 25 last week, go Mellies!

Been following and haven't chipped in yet? May this be your call to contribute:

Julia Fish's house barely notices an outage. "It's difficult for us to tell when there's no water because our tanks fill in. It's a very seamless thing," she says. "The only way we can tell is when we hear the tank filling." Part of the house was built in 1920, so it took some work. Here's her setup:

Want to go further? SIX Cocktail Bar’s owner broke it down in the community chat group for residents. A borehole can be about R75,000, including a site survey, drilling, water testing and registration with the City of Johannesburg. Treat that as a starting point, not a quote. Your property, the drilling and the paperwork all affect the total.

Julia's checklist before you drill:

And no setup replaces the real thing. Water, Julia says, "you can't replace it with anything else."

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Brush to the coat. Short-haired pets need it once or twice a week; long or double coats need it every day or two to stop mats and shedding. Ziggy's Pet Pamporium on 7th Street stocks brushes and natural products, and they'll tell you which brush suits your animal.

Bath only when needed, with pet shampoo, not yours. Most dogs are fine every four to eight weeks in lukewarm water. Cats need far less. Ziggy's also grooms in store.

Trim nails every few weeks, clean ears gently and check paw pads for thorns and overgrown fur. Melville Veterinary Clinic grooms alongside its vet work, and Canine & Co in Greenside is close by for supplies. If you spot skin trouble, tight mats or a stressed pet, stop and visit the vet.

Melville House on 1st Avenue changed hands six weeks ago. New owner Miguel Martins is still working out who the guest house should be for. "We're still going through the process and evolution of identifying our target market, of improving Melville House and what it has to offer," he says. Melville's close to universities, the CBD and hospitals, so they expect many local and international guests.

He wants to start weekly coffee sessions with other guest house owners, Airbnb hosts and business owners in Melville. "If we come together, we're able to find solutions that help us bridge the gap in service delivery," he says. To join, call Miguel on 072 416 0311.

We love to see new additions instantly catch the Melville Spirit!

The Melville Artisanal Market runs every Saturday, 10 am to 3 pm, next to the Melville Tennis Courts on the corner of Carlow and Rustenburg Roads. "Markets are always unpredictable, but we have regular customers and visitors coming through, some just to browse and others to do regular shopping for specific things, from specific vendors," says one of the organisers, Estelle Lötter. "As we say, 'Come rain or shine, we are always there'!"

There are lots of food vendors now, and they bring new faces. "The fact that our products are artisanal, handmade, locally sourced, small batch, etc. is very appealing to our customers," Estelle says.

There's no market-wide Halloween plan for Saturday 31 October, "but individual vendors usually make an effort."

Diarise the Christmas Market on 12 December, "subject to confirmation", and the last market of the year on 19 December.

Ziziphus mucronata, the buffalo thorn, is a medicine tree and a big one for butterflies and insects. It's hard to grow and rarely forms stands, so every tree on the Koppies counts. Back when houses were built from mud and sticks, its wood held up the walls.

Izinyanga [healers] and sangomas harvest it carefully, taking small strips from the sun-facing side at set times of day so the tree survives. Someone on the Koppies hasn't. "Someone has taken all the bark all the way round the tree, leaving the tree vulnerable. In other words, it will actually die," head conservationist Tam Scheidegger told us. That kind of ring-barking is usually done to sell bark in town markets, and it kills the tree that the healers need.

The last stargazing evening of the year is on Saturday 14 November, and Dr Tony Lelliott, formerly of the Wits School of Education, wants you to look up despite the city lights. Groups are capped at 20 around one telescope, so book early!

It's on Saturday 14 November, 18:45 to 20:15, just after sunset, with a telescope and a short talk on our night sky from Tony. Meet at the Lecture Hut; the entrance is at 1 Kafue Road, Emmarentia. It's R150 for adults and R50 for kids, booked on Quicket. If it rains, it moves to the next day.

Last time around we had a flurry of last-minute bookings and they found nothing, heh, so please, don't be that guy!

In late August, Grade 4s from Bryanston Parallel Medium School came to the Koppies to study invasive plants for the FIRST LEGO League.

Teacher Juanita van der Merwe's team picked the Highveld grassland as an ecosystem at risk, and conservationist Clement Nkomazana showed them bugweed, moth catcher, blackjacks, lantana and syringa, how birds spread the berries, and how one moth catcher pod holds over 800 seeds.

"We couldn't fathom how the Koppies could help them with such a project, but we're always open to new challenges," says our fearless leader Jenny Grice.

"In just a few months, they've worked really hard to develop a small pamphlet that we can give to visitors, showing photos of invasives that people must remove from their gardens and from green spaces, as well as a website," Jenny says.

The Robokids present their work at Sci-Bono on 7 November. "We wish the young Robokids good luck!"

Jozi Trails are hosting a 10km Braamfontein Spruit Historic Trail Walk on Sunday 1 November, 7 am to 11 am. Dogs on leads are welcome, strollers aren't, and you'll want a hat, sunscreen and water. It's R100, capped at 30 people; book here.

Their new CEO, Saber Manjoo, wants Joburg to know the Spruit and help look after it: "We're hoping that people understand more about the local area, start appreciating our natural green spaces and hopefully also start getting involved in assisting us to restore and preserve these areas."

Questions? WhatsApp 062 990 2388. Can't make it? The next walk is Sunday 29 November.

Melville Around The Web

Thank you for reading this far! If this one helped you make sense of the ballot, or sort your Halloween plans, why not treat us to a coffee on SnapScan? ☕️

The day after you vote, the Melville Art Mile is back on Thursday 5 November. Book the VIP guided walk and walk the Mile with Snaps On Seventh.

Forward this email to someone who loves Melville.

'til next week, Melville,

Stay vocal, stay vigilant, stay voting.

La gon ✌️