URBAN ECONOMY
The City has not directly addressed CDE ' s findings. Mayor Dada Morero has, however, pushed back on the broader narrative of infrastructure collapse, arguing in June that framing the city ' s problems as an inevitable crisis obscures deliberate efforts to undermine it, while ANC figures have pointed to the DA-led coalition that governed Johannesburg from 2016 as the source of much of the current dysfunction. Independent voices have largely sided with CDE ' s assessment. Business Leadership South Africa chief executive Busi Mavuso raised similar concerns in June, after the City missed a payment deadline on its debt to Eskom, pointing to chronic late payment of suppliers and a pattern of undercollecting the revenue the City itself has budgeted for.
Johannesburg has a strong base from which to build such partnerships. Its private sector contains deep financial, managerial, and technical expertise, while community organisations already play important roles in maintaining public spaces and improving neighbourhoods.
These partnerships cannot replace accountable local government. Their value lies in combining outside expertise and resources with a municipal administration able to set priorities, implement agreements and account for public money.
Recovery here will not come from a single project or political term. It will show up as consistency, infrastructure maintained before it fails, revenue collected reliably, and journeys across the city that residents and businesses can actually plan around.
Johannesburg remains South Africa ' s largest commercial centre and one of its most important concentrations of people, capital and enterprise, which is exactly why its difficulties carry consequences far beyond its own borders. � sabusinessintegrator. co. za 25