Business leaders considering a bigger role in dealing with Johannesburg's challenges

Business for South Africa (B4SA), a platform of South African business leaders, is considering using some of its considerable expertise and resources to help fix Johannesburg, said the chairman of the organisation’s steering committee, Martin Kingston.

B4SA has, since the Covid pandemic, played a big role in collaborating with the government in four focused areas: to help turnaround the energy crisis and Eskom; the rail, port and logistics bottlenecks; helping the government to deal with crime and corruption, such as with the establishment of the Digital Evidence Unit; and working on youth employment initiatives.

Johannesburg was once the economic hub of Africa, but its failing municipal services and infrastructure have seen the city become a shadow of what it once was. The running of the municipality has become a key political football for the 2026 local government elections, with, for instance, DA Federal Executive chairman and veteran politician Helen Zille recently announcing her candidacy to be the next mayor.

B4SA lead convener Adrian Gore said in a briefing that it is key to understand that B4SA does not get involved in politics or in formulating policies; it helps state agencies to implement the government’s policies.

Many of B4SA’s members were already making big contributions to keep the city operating, such as filling “thousands of potholes.” While the organisation was also considering getting involved in helping government agencies to implement its water programs, it did not intend to cannibalize resources from its other four areas of focus.

Gore said that the narrative of the South African economy had turned more negative since the end of last year, with factors such as the weak economic growth, the US tariff issue, the White House debacle, and some early instability in the formation of the Government of National Unity hurting business and investor sentiment.

However, the reality was more positive; the economy was resilient, and, for instance, necessary structural reforms in the government were gathering pace, and the electricity and logistics crises were either firmly “stabilised” or they were showing good operational improvements, with more to come, he said.

For instance, on the energy front, as of June 2025, and since 2023, B4SA had mobilised the assistance of 350 private sector experts, who were working with key government and other officials to help deal with South Africa’s energy crisis.

Positive changes included 6GW of additional energy generation, excluding another estimated 6GW of home and business solar power; the approval of third-party wheeling of electricity; and the completion of new billing rules.

Eskom had benefitted from more than 12,000 hours of private sector expertise, and there was a power investment pipeline of some R1.3 trillion.

In transport and logistics, there had been a 15.5% increase in the coal volumes railed, and a more than 20 million ton increase in annual rail freight capacity. Some 385 private experts were involved in helping solve the logistics bottlenecks.

More than 160 private sector responses were received to participate in SA’s rail and port revitalisation. Some 500 personnel were deployed to secure rail lines, and at the ports, the cargo discharge time had reduced from a maximum of 23 days two years ago to only about two days currently, which was well within international norms.

However, said Kingston, the performance of key state-owned organisations was still insufficient, and monopoly habits were reappearing. There was a risk that the lack of urgency on the pace of structural reforms may deter investment. There was a lack of capacity and skills in departments and regulators to drive key structural reforms, while a clearer pathway for Eskom and Transnet needed to be articulated, and critical paths, accountabilities, milestones, and timeframes needed to be agreed.

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