By Charmaine Ndlela
Johannesburg’s worsening dysfunction has created a lucrative ecosystem in which political, business and criminal interests allegedly benefit from the City’s failures, according to a new report by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE).
The report warns that corruption is helping to keep South Africa’s economic hub broken, with criminal networks exploiting failing municipal systems for financial gain.
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The warning is contained in Time for Action – Corruption in Joburg, the fifth report in CDE’s Johannesburg Matters: Fixing South Africa’s Growth Engine series.
CDE says Johannesburg’s decline is no longer simply a consequence of poor administration, weak maintenance or municipal incompetence, but is being intensified by networks that exploit the City’s failures.
Infrastructure theft creates repair contracts, water failures create demand for tankers, while municipal dysfunction creates opportunities for emergency procurement.
“This is the vicious cycle Johannesburg must break,” the report says, warning that those who profit from the City’s failures have an incentive to perpetuate institutional dysfunction.
CDE describes this as a “crime-council ecosystem” in which political, business and criminal interests intersect and benefit from growing dysfunction.
According to the report, municipal budgets, procurement systems, appointments and service-delivery functions create opportunities for financial extraction.
Politically influenced boards and senior appointments can facilitate tender manipulation, while corrupt officials may cooperate with criminal networks involved in infrastructure theft, sabotage and building hijacking.
Some officials are also accused of engaging in extortion.
CDE says this creates a cycle in which corruption contributes to institutional failure, while that failure creates new opportunities for further corruption.
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The report comes as Johannesburg heads towards the local government elections on 4 November, with CDE arguing that the vote provides an opportunity to put the metro on a different trajectory.
It says the City needs political leadership capable of rebuilding institutions weakened by maladministration, corruption and a fiscal crisis.
After nine mayors in 10 years, CDE says Johannesburg needs effective leadership and stable management.
The organisation says the stakes extend beyond the metro because Johannesburg remains critical to South Africa’s economic recovery, investment and employment prospects.
“A national economic, social and political recovery needs a prosperous Johannesburg powering growth, investment and employment in the country and on the continent,” the report says.
The report also highlights the alleged fraudulent transfer of City property, describing how corrupt officials can use insider information to identify vulnerable buildings, assist illegal landlords and, in extreme cases, facilitate the transfer of property to hijackers.
CDE argues that tackling the problem will require the City to move away from treating corruption as hundreds of isolated allegations and instead focus on networks driving the most damaging forms of criminality.
These include repeat suppliers facing questions, politically connected intermediaries, officials appearing in multiple suspect transactions, infrastructure theft syndicates, organised extortion and corruption involving major procurement streams.
The report calls for a systematic approach in which the City identifies the most serious cases, refers them to appropriate law enforcement agencies, builds strong evidence and tracks what happens after referral.
It cautions that while “zero tolerance” is a useful slogan, limited resources mean that every irregularity cannot become a priority criminal investigation.
Investigative resources should instead be concentrated on cases capable of disrupting entire criminal networks, CDE says.
The organisation has proposed 10 immediate priorities for a new Johannesburg administration following the elections.
At the centre of these recommendations is a call for radically more transparent procurement.
CDE says information should be published across the full life cycle of major contracts, including specifications, bid scoring, beneficial ownership, contract variations, invoices, payments and proof of delivery.
It also wants City data to be used to identify suspicious connections and procurement patterns.
Political appointments are another area CDE says must be addressed.
It recommends open and merit-based processes for senior municipal positions and municipal entity boards, with published criteria, professional assessments and recorded reasons for appointments.
The report further calls for measures to reduce the profitability of organised crime.
These include using infrastructure that is less vulnerable to theft, tightening controls around emergency contracts and strengthening supplier-performance requirements.
Lifestyle audits should also be used strategically, particularly for officials in high-risk positions, while maintaining privacy and legal safeguards.
CDE says the independence of investigators must also be strengthened.
It recommends protecting the leadership, budget and investigations of the City’s Group Forensic and Investigation Service from political interference. Sensitive investigations should trigger external referral or oversight where appropriate.
Completed investigations should also be formally tracked to prevent findings from simply disappearing.
The report wants stronger cooperation between the City and the criminal justice system, with serious and repeat offenders prioritised and cases systematically referred to relevant law enforcement agencies.
But CDE says criminal prosecution alone will not be enough.
It wants disciplinary action, civil recovery, contractual remedies and anti-corruption legislation to be used alongside criminal cases, arguing that the City must recover losses and ensure forensic investigations result in consequences rather than gathering dust.
Whistleblowers must also be better protected, according to the report.
CDE recommends secure reporting channels, protection against retaliation and rapid referral mechanisms when whistleblowers face threats to their physical safety.
It also proposes consideration of carefully designed rewards for information that leads to significant recoveries or successful enforcement.
However, CDE warns that institutional reform cannot depend entirely on ethical leadership.
The report argues that Johannesburg needs systems capable of withstanding bad leadership and attempts by powerful interests to circumvent or disable them.
This means reducing opportunities for hidden discretion, increasing transparency, professionalising appointments, protecting investigations and ensuring wrongdoing has consequences.
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“There is no shortage of ethical codes, procurement rules, financial regulations or declarations of principle in South African government institutions. It is the gap between rules and outcomes that is the problem,” the report says.
CDE argues that Johannesburg must build institutions that continue functioning even when powerful individuals have incentives to evade the rules.
The organisation says the immediate responsibility will rest with the metro’s next administration, although civil society and business should explore ways to provide additional oversight and support.
The incoming leadership will need to make corruption harder to commit and conceal, easier to detect and investigate, and more likely to result in arrests and other consequences.
The report warns that Johannesburg’s next five years could bring more of the same if the opportunity presented by the elections is not seized.
“Johannesburg desperately needs leaders committed to dealing with corruption and criminality in and around the administration and its politics,” CDE says, adding that the November elections offer an opportunity to put the City on a better path.
The report draws on research commissioned by CDE from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, including Joburglary: Assessing the Crime-Council Ecosystem in the City of Johannesburg, as well as CDE’s own research into the state of the City.
