By Johnathan Paoli
Johannesburg could reach a point where its deteriorating infrastructure and deepening inequality become too difficult to reverse, warns Rise Mzansi’s mayoral candidate for the city, Lukhona Mnguni.
He has called for urgent intervention to prevent its economic decline.
In an interview on the Inside Metros podcast, Mnguni warns that the city’s future depends on serious political leadership capable of addressing corruption, infrastructure failures and the unequal distribution of development.
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He describes Johannesburg as an engineering construct that will become increasingly difficult to rehabilitate if basic maintenance continues to be neglected.
“Any engineering product, that’s why a building, you can either renovate it or it reaches a stage where they say, this building needs to be demolished. Cities too can experience that. And when they reach that point, it becomes much harder to invest in their rehabilitation. And they become ghettos, they become gangster paradise, they become places that are run by drug lords,” he said.
Mnguni believes Johannesburg needs at least three years of serious leadership focused on tackling waste and corruption, replacing ageing water pipes and extending infrastructure to underserved communities.
He criticises what he describes as an excessive concentration of development in the northern suburbs, arguing that municipal priorities are too often shaped by property developers rather than a broader vision for the city.
“Part of what has gone wrong is that the politics has stopped being able to embed a vision, because the politics has been hijacked by money,” he said.
Mnguni stressed that Johannesburg’s problems cannot be solved simply by improving financial administration or celebrating clean audits. It needs to prioritise residents’ quality of life and ensure that infrastructure and economic opportunities benefit communities across the municipality.
He said the city’s economic importance makes its decline a national concern, pointing to Johannesburg’s contribution to South Africa’s economy.
“Joburg is too big to be written off. 16% of the country’s GDP is generated here. 40% of Gauteng province’s economic activity happens in Joburg. We also know that every 30 years, the population of Joburg is going to double. The question is, when it doubles, what kind of society it becomes?” he asked.
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Turning to national governance, Mnguni praised the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, describing it as “probably the best use of taxpayers’ money we have seen in a very long time”.
He said the commission is addressing what he views as a central cause of South Africa’s governance failures: the alleged infiltration of state institutions and political structures by criminal networks.
“What Mkhwanazi was alluding to is what is at the crux of failure of this country, the infiltration of not only the criminal justice system, but the governance system and politicians by criminals, enterprising criminals,” he said.
He praised the commission’s work for offering hope of accountability, but said meaningful change will also depend on voters choosing political leaders willing to confront corruption and those who enable it.
- Watch the full Inside Metros podcast interview for Mnguni’s plans for Johannesburg, his criticism of Zille’s campaign and his assessment of the Madlanga Commission.
