”In Africa, all roads lead to Jozi. Follow planes in African skies — from London, Atlanta, Delhi — or trace the dust behind African buses or the direction of footprints and you are more likely to end up in Joburg than anywhere else. Ah, Johannesburg, the world’s most underrated city,” wrote British journalist Adam Roberts.
The quote appears in a report called Johannesburg, Africa’s World Status, an innovative study released this week by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), which four years ago undertook to research the impact of globalisation on Johannesburg.
The report commends Johannesburg for being a ”world-class city” but warns that this prestigious status is slipping because of national policies and a high crime rate. It recommends that Johannesburg be more absorbed in its own development and stop allowing national policies to hold it back.
”The issues facing Johannesburg are of national and continental importance. If Johannesburg fails, the consequences for the country and the region will be dire.”
The advantage of having world- class status is that Johannesburg is acknowledged by the global community as part of the 30 ”control centres of the world economy”. These cities operate on a hierarchical status, with New York, London and Tokyo the top dogs.
The CDE warns that Johannesburg needs to be flexible, innovative and move fast because globalisation poses serious threats to cities.
”Cities that do not take active steps to carve out a new local, regional or global niche will decline.”
Ann Bernstein, executive director of the CDE, says that even though Joburg is one of the cheapest cities in the world it is a place of fear. The Aids pandemic, congested roads, uncompetitive IT infrastructure and a restricted skills pools are compromising its status.
Eradicating crime through the improvement of safety and security programmes is seen as central to boosting Johannesburg’s international status.
The CDE’s main proposal is that a special national partnership con- sisting of three Cabinet ministers, the governor of the Reserve Bank, the premier of Gauteng, two newspaper editors and several other leaders should be appointed to respond in a multifaceted way to implementing a vision for the city.
The key theme of this partnership should be to ”let Johannesburg lead: that is, we need to move away from rigidly uniform national policies. And if the rest of the country is not ready to follow, then it is imperative that we do not hold our one world city back.”
Those who believe that the renewal of the central business district in Johannesburg should be a priority will object to the report’s controversial stance on the inner city. Calling for Johannesburg to be reconceptualised, it says that most business leaders see Sandton as the heart of the city. The report says the inner city has received too much cultural and historical revival without enough economic initiatives.
The CDE says that Midrand and Sandton have developed into key economic nodes that need to be developed.
Bernstein says that emphasis should be placed on the burgeoning corridor of Sandton-Midrand-Centurion because it has received far too little attention. Orange Farm and Soweto also need to be linked to the rest of the urban region.
Becoming ”super attractive” for investment is the solution to problems of poverty and unemployment. The CDE says that Johannesburg should be exempted from labour laws and tax requirements that hamper business and employment in the city.
Labour regulations have adversely affected employment and investment. Bernstein says that labour laws introduced in 1994 are preventing jobs from being created in the city. Lack of investment has also been attributed to the sluggish introduction of privatisation.
”The delays in sorting out the country’s telecoms policy and privatisation have meant that South Africa and Johannesburg have risked forfeiting more high-tech investment,” she says.
Bernstein says that Johannesburg needs to aggressively attract skilled immigrants because, with so many experts leaving the city, it is suffering from a skills reduction crisis.
The report attacks economic portfolio Cabinet ministers and President Thabo Mbeki for hardly ever mentioning Johannesburg and almost never referring to its role as a world city.
”If a city is to be successfully marketed in the face of stiff opposition from its rivals, its leaders must have a clear vision of its future,” the report says.
It says that local business leaders have been insular and defensive in their view of the city. Suggesting controversial political reform, the CDE says that authority in Johannesburg is too centralised and needs to be able to move ahead independent of national and provincial control.
The report makes similar recommendations to those contained in the Johannesburg metro council’s latest blueprint for the future, the Joburg 2030 report. However, the 2030 report does not believe the political leadership is weak and it supports the renewal of the inner city.
The CDE and the 2030 report agree that the greatest challenge is to change the view of residents and the wider world that Johannesburg is a crime-infested city.
”Whatever its difficulties, Johannesburg remains hugely a dynamic city in economic terms. It also has a unique and vibrant cultural life,” the CDE says.