South Africa’s Johannesburg, ranked as the continent’s richest city due to its concentration of businesses and estimated 12, 300 millionaires, is facing a substantial infrastructure crisis.
The city requires 221 billion rand ($12 billion) to address a severe backlog of maintenance and overdue upgrades across its deteriorating road, power, and water networks.
Recent discussions within the city council have pointed out the urgency of the situation according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg, thus highlighting the extent of the shortfall, which is exacerbated by frequent power outages and widespread service failures.
Parts of Johannesburg have experienced power outages and water shortages lasting up to 11 days, while potholes remain unaddressed for months, raising serious concerns about public safety and economic stability.
The city’s road network, in particular, has been identified as a critical area of concern. “The current state of the roads poses significant risks to public safety, economic security, and environmental sustainability,” the city noted in its assessment. Failure to address these issues, the report warns, could result in further deterioration of infrastructure, unsafe bridges, increased flooding, and a rise in traffic accidents.
The infrastructure crisis in Johannesburg has unfolded against a backdrop of political and financial instability. The city, home to approximately 5 million people, has seen eight different mayors since 2019, a result of volatile coalition politics.
The African National Congress (ANC) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the largest parties in the city’s ruling coalition, have installed a mayor from the Al-Jama-ah party, despite it holding just three of the 270 council seats.
This political instability contrasts with the national scene, where the ANC, which lost its parliamentary majority in the May elections for the first time in three decades, has formed a coalition government with the Democratic Alliance and several smaller parties. The EFF remains in opposition.
To address the financial shortfall, Johannesburg’s council has imposed above-inflation increases in utilities and rates, and secured a 2.5 billion rand($135 million) loan from the Agence Francaise de Développement, despite initial resistance from opposition parties.
The city’s financial difficulties are further compounded by challenges in revenue collection. A document dated March 6 revealed that the city is struggling to collect 6.1 billion rand($330 million) in overdue payments from large customers, including government departments and corporations.
This crisis in Johannesburg’s infrastructure echoes wider concerns across the African continent. For instance, Nigeria, once regarded as the continent’s economic giant, requires $100 billion annually for the next 30 years to bridge its infrastructure deficit.
Lagos State, also one of Africa’s wealthiest cities based on the volume of millionaires, allocated N550.689 billion ($3.25 million), representing 24.28% of its 2024 budget, for infrastructure development and maintenance.
A report by Nanyang Technological University’s Centre for African Studies noted that Nigeria’s economic growth is significantly hampered by critical infrastructure gaps.
The report, titled “Back to Growth: Priority Agenda for the Economic Revival of Nigeria,” emphasizes that Nigeria’s underdeveloped transport networks, inadequate power supply, and insufficient public services are slowing down economic progress, with the country’s infrastructure budget representing less than 5% of the $100 billion required annually.
As Johannesburg and other African cities grapple with these challenges, the urgency of addressing infrastructure deficits becomes increasingly clear.