Top CEOs to decide on plan to save South Africa’s most important city

Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), a lobby group that counts many of the country’s chief executive officers among its members, said it will meet this week to discuss support for Johannesburg, which is struggling to pay its bills. 

The council “will consider analysis of Johannesburg’s predicament and discuss how business can support its recovery,” the group said in a weekly newsletter on Monday. 

Johannesburg, which makes up about 16% of South Africa’s economic output, is facing power cuts after failing to settle its debt with Eskom, the state-owned electricity utility.

It also has a multibillion-rand infrastructure backlog, with years of underinvestment in water, electricity and road maintenance.

The country’s Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana recently threatened to withhold state funding because of what he said was an “unaffordable” wage deal the city made with its staff. 

BLSA has previously warned that Johannesburg’s deepening fiscal and governance crisis risks undermining the country’s improving economic outlook, calling for urgent action to rebuild the nation’s commercial capital.

The city’s decline has become a national emergency because it accounts for about 16% of gross domestic product and is central to domestic and foreign investment decisions.

Its deterioration risks weakening investor confidence just as South Africa’s economic recovery story gains traction, the lobby group said.