一只山羊在约翰内斯堡垃圾清运工罢工期间在垃圾中觅食 摄影：汤米·特伦查德（Tommy Trenchard），《每日电讯报》 本·法默（Ben Farmer）发自约翰内斯堡 查看个人简介 本常驻南非，同时也供职于《每日电讯报》的全球卫生安全团队。他在喀布尔报道阿富汗战争五年，在伦敦担任国防记者五年，在伊斯兰堡四年 格林威治标准时间上午8:00 从远处看，这具尸体就像是堆积在约翰内斯堡市中心人行道上的又一堆未清理的垃圾。
银色毯子下露出的鲜红血迹和毫无生气的双手，表明情况并非如此。
A goat forages among rubbish during a bin collectors’ strike in Johannesburg Credit Tommy Trenchard for The Telegraph Ben Farmer in Johannesburg Show biography Ben is based in South Africa and also works on The Telegraph's Global Health Security team. He spent five years in Kabul covering the Afghanistan war, five years as Defence Correspondent in London, and four years in Islamabad 8:00am GMT From a distance, the body looked like another heap of uncollected rubbish that piles up on the pavements of downtown Johannesburg It was a vivid trickle of blood and lifeless hand peeking from beneath a silver blanket that suggested otherwise.
希尔布罗（Hillbrow）的居民们站在奥克瑟斯街（Ockerse Street）垃圾清运工罢工产生的成堆垃圾旁，看着警察等待救护车将这名遭枪击身亡的保安运往太平间。
Hillbrow residents stood on Ockerse Street next to the piles of waste from a bin collectors’ strike and watched as police waited for an ambulance to take the gunned-down security guard to a mortuary.
一名警官在现场对《每日电讯报》说：“就在这条街上，两个街区外，昨天又发生了一起枪击事件。”
“There was another shooting on this same street two blocks away, yesterday,” an officer told The Telegraph at the scene.
随着南非将在下周迎来地方选举，犯罪以及垃圾清运和自来水等公共服务的衰败，成为了选民们最关切的问题。
Crime and the decay of public services such as rubbish collection and tap water are high on voters’ minds as South Africa goes to the polls next week for local elections.
11月4日的投票预计将成为纳尔逊·曼德拉昔日强大的非洲国民大会（简称非国大，ANC）衰落过程中的又一个里程碑，该党过去二十年来支持率一直在流失。
The Nov 4 vote is expected to be another milestone in the decline of Nelson Mandela’s once-mighty African National Congress (ANC) party, which has been bleeding support for two decades.
一名男孩站在岩石上查看希尔布罗枪击事件后的现场 争夺约翰内斯堡市政厅控制权是该国最受关注的较量。
A boy stands on a rock to view the aftermath of the shooting in Hillbrow The fight to run Johannesburg’s city hall is the most closely watched contest in the country.
这座非洲最富裕的城市目前由一个非国大领导的联合政府执政，长期饱受折磨的居民们正在应对断电、路坑、水龙头断水、成堆的垃圾以及腐败的官员。
Africa’s richest city is governed by an ANC-led coalition, and long-suffering residents are dealing with power cuts, potholes, taps running dry, piles of rubbish and corrupt officials.
希尔布罗长期以来一直是市中心城市衰败的象征，但约翰内斯堡的困境随处可见。
Hillbrow has long been a symbol of city-centre urban decay, but Johannesburg’s woes are everywhere.
在吸引了附近大学学生光顾的波西米亚风格的梅尔维尔（Melville）郊区，蓝花楹正在盛开，但商户们却闷闷不乐。
In the bohemian suburb of Melville, which is frequented by students from the nearby universities, the jacaranda trees are blooming, but businesses are glum.
乔纳森·迈克尔（Jonathan Michael）已经记不清位于第七街的酒吧“好兆头”（Good Omens）上一次自来水供应没有中断整整一周是什么时候了。那可能是12月，也可能是1月。
Jonathan Michael cannot remember the last time Good Omens, his bar on 7th Street, had an uninterrupted week of tap water. It might have been December, it might have been January.
这位32岁的老板别无选择，只能安装水箱并买水，这从他的收入中分走了很大一部分。确保酒吧干净整洁、顾客能够冲马桶或洗手，成了他挥之不去的担忧。
The 32-year-old owner has had no choice but to fit tanks and buy in water, taking a hefty chunk from his earnings. Making sure the place is clean and customers can flush the lavatory or wash their hands is a constant worry.
他说：“有时候我觉得甚至不值得开门，因为我们在水上的花费会超过我们的营业收入。而且我觉得不舒服，我觉得不干净，我不想呆在这里。”乔纳森·迈克尔已经记不清他的酒吧上一次自来水供应没有中断整整一周是什么时候了。今年，约翰内斯堡的许多郊区连续几天甚至数周没有水。关注邻里的WhatsApp群组以了解水车何时送水，已经成了日常琐事。
“Some days I feel like it’s not even worth opening because we will spend more on water than we will get in revenue,” he said. “And I don’t feel comfortable, I don’t feel clean, I don’t want to be here.”Jonathan Michael cannot remember the last time his bar had an uninterrupted week of tap water Many of Johannesburg’s suburbs have been without water for days or even weeks at a time this year. Keeping an eye on neighbourhood WhatsApp groups to see when a tanker is dropping off supplies has become a daily routine.
在不远处的肯辛顿（Kensington），在路边储水罐旁排队接水的居民表示，他们的水龙头已经干涸了一个多星期。在贝苏伊登豪特谷（Bezuidenhout Valley），他们称断水时间接近两周。
Down the road in Kensington, residents queueing for water at a roadside storage tank said their taps had been dry for more than a week. In Bezuidenhout Valley, they said it had been closer to a fortnight.
一位居民说：“这是个大问题，我们什么都冲不了，然而到了月底市政府还是要向我们收费。”
“It’s a big issue, we can’t flush anything and then at the end of the day the municipality will still charge us,” said one resident.
多年的疏于管理、老化的基础设施、漏水管道以及未装表的私接乱拉，导致该市估计有48%的水资源流失或未计费。
Years of neglect, decrepit infrastructure, leaky pipes and unmetered connections mean an estimated 48 per cent of the city’s water is either lost or unbilled.
该市市长达达·莫雷罗（Dada Morero）否认存在危机，他承认存在“挑战”，但称这些挑战是局部的。
Dada Morero, the city’s mayor, has denied there is a crisis, admitting “challenges” but saying they are localised.
他本周表示：“只有在我们宣布到达零日——整个约翰内斯堡都没有水的时候，那才叫危机。”一名肯辛顿居民在一个水箱前用容器接水，以防自来水断供。非国大（ANC）的主要反对党民主联盟（DA）希望，他们能将选举变成对非国大提供基本市政服务政绩的一场审判，而水资源问题高居指控清单之首。
He said this week: “It will be a crisis at the point when we say it’s day zero – the entire Johannesburg does not have water.”A Kensington resident fills containers with water from a tank in anticipation of losing access to running water The Democratic Alliance (DA) party, the ANC’s main opponents, hope they can turn the elections into a judgment on the ANC’s record of delivering basic municipal services, with water at the top of the charge sheet.
民主联盟约翰内斯堡市长候选人海伦·齐勒表示：“要么我们每天朝着修复城市的方向前进，要么我们每天朝着城市彻底且系统性毁灭的方向前进。”由于对腐败和缺乏履职能力的担忧，民众对非国大（ANC）的失望情绪几十年来一直在加剧。
Helen Zille, the DA’s candidate for Johannesburg mayor, said: “Either we can move everyday in the direction of fixing our cities, or we can move everyday in the direction of their complete and systemic destruction.”Disillusion with the ANC has been mounting for decades because of concerns about corruption and lack of delivery.
该党在2004年的全国大选中获得了近百分之七十的选票。在2021的上届选举中，这一比例首次跌至百分之五十以下，当时该党赢得了百分之四十六的选票，并保留了近半数市镇的控制权。
The party took nearly 70 per cent of the national vote in 2004. That fell below 50 per cent for the first time at the last elections in 2021, when it won 46 per cent of votes and retained control of nearly half the municipalities.
在2024年的全国大选中，该党仅获得略高于百分之四十的选票，并被迫接受联合政府。
At the 2024 national vote, it managed just over 40 per cent and was forced to accept a coalition government.
近期针对即将到来的地方选举的约翰内斯堡民调显示，民主联盟的支持率超过百分之三十，非国大的支持率则超过百分之二十。
Recent Johannesburg polls for the upcoming local elections have put the DA above 30 per cent and the ANC above 20 per cent.
希尔布罗社区受公共服务崩溃的影响尤为严重。任何一方要获得绝对胜利都不大可能，而该国的市镇因产生短暂联合政府的政治交易而声名狼藉。
The Hillbrow neighbourhood has suffered particularly from the breakdown of public services An outright win for either party is unlikely, and the country’s municipalities are notorious for political horse-trading that produces brief coalitions.
自2021年地方选举以来，随着一连串权力分享协议的破裂，约翰内斯堡已经频繁更迭了七位市长。
Johannesburg has churned through seven mayors since the 2021 local elections as successive power-sharing pacts have unravelled.
然而，尽管对公共服务充满了挫败感，政治冷漠和不信任情绪依然普遍存在。在与梅尔维尔、亚历山大镇或贝伊德豪特谷的居民交谈时，很难找到一个说自己会投票的人。
Yet for all the frustration with services, apathy and mistrust towards politics is rife. Talking to residents of Melville, Alexandra township, or Bezuidenhout Valley, it was difficult to find anyone who said they would vote.
益普索今年早些时候的一项调查发现，近半数的南非人认为没有任何政党代表他们的观点，而只有百分之三十八的人认为他们的市镇正在很好地履行职责。
An Ipsos survey earlier this year found nearly half of South Africans felt no political party represented their views, while only 38 per cent believed their municipality was doing its job well.
那些确实参与投票的人往往是出于长期以来的忠诚，特别是许多年长的黑人南非人，他们仍然将非国大视为反种族隔离斗争的代名词。
Those who do vote often do so according to long-standing loyalties, particularly for many older black South Africans who still see the ANC as synonymous with the anti-apartheid struggle.
在梅尔维尔的“可口休闲”酒吧工作的阿什莉·班克斯预测，无论发生什么，她祖母那一代人都会投票给非国大。她自己则没有进行选民登记。
Ashleigh Banks, who works at the Coca Lounge bar in Melville, predicted her grandmother’s generation would vote for the ANC whatever happened. She herself was not registered to vote.
她说，她的朋友们最关心的主要是找工作难的问题。15岁至34岁人群的失业率为47%。
She said her friends were most preoccupied with the difficulty of getting work. Unemployment for those aged 15 to 34 is 47 per cent.
阿什利·班克斯（Ashleigh Banks）预测，她祖母那辈人将继续投票支持非国大。这位22岁的年轻人说：“现在已经不是20世纪90年代了，也不是纳尔逊·曼德拉的时代了。如果非国大赢得这次选举，我们就彻底完了。我们全完了。”
Ashleigh Banks predicts that people of her grandmother will continue to vote for the ANC The 22-year-old said: “It’s not the 1990s any more, it’s not Nelson Mandela any more. If the ANC win these elections, we are cooked. We are finished.
“我觉得主要是老一辈人在让他们继续掌权。”与此同时，在这样一个80%的公民都是黑人的国家里，民主联盟经常被指责是一个白人政党，其领导层也主要由白人组成。在全国层面，该党一直在艰难突破略高于五分之一得票率的上限。
“I feel it’s mostly the older generation keeping them in power.”Meanwhile, the DA is often accused of being a white party with a largely white leadership, in a country where 80 per cent of citizens are black. At a national level, the party has struggled to break through a ceiling of a little more than a fifth of the vote.
该党战略家知道，要想在反对非国大的斗争中进一步取得突破，他们必须说服选民根据自己认为谁能兑现承诺来投票，而不是根据旧有的忠诚或沿着种族分界线投票。此次市政选举就是对这一点的一次考验。
Party strategists know that to cut through further against the ANC, they must persuade voters to cast ballots according to who they think will deliver, rather than according to old loyalties or along racial lines. The municipal elections are a test of that.
在“好兆头”（Good Omens）工作的诺曼·姆祖姆贝（Norman Mzumbe）表示，看到民主联盟的高层中有更多黑人面孔对他是很重要的，但他同时也希望看到实际政绩。
Norman Mzumbe, who works in Good Omens, said it was important to him to see more black figures in the DA’s senior ranks, but he also wanted to see delivery.
他说：“很多人说民主联盟的领导层是白人，但如果他们能干实事，那就是能干实事。”
He said: “A lot of people say the DA leadership is white, but if they work, they work.”