Residents and businesses that fall within the boundaries of the City of Johannesburg have always known that the council’s old slogan, ‘A world-class African city’, was more aspirational than factual. Nevertheless, the recent explosion below Lilian Ngoyi Street (formerly Bree Street), which killed one person and injured 50 others, underlined just how wide the gap now is between that aspiration and the lived reality. A chasm that is far wider (and widening) than the gaping scar left by the alarming explosion.