Lack of transport , dirty air keep SA’s metros off list of Top 200 global cities

South African cities are failing to keep up with the best cities in the world, due to a lack of public transport, and air quality standards that leave plenty to be desired.

Not a single South African city managed to compete with the top 200 global cities, although some performed well in Africa, and are only outperformed by Cairo and Alexandra in Egypt.

According to the Schroders Global Cities Index, a top-ranked global city is an international hub for business and culture, with a large and diverse economy, a strong cultural scene, top class education, and world-leading infrastructure that is difficult to replicate, attracting some of the best talent.

Real estate investors use the index to identify and rank some of the best and brightest global cities according to economics, transport, innovation, and environmental scores.

South Africa ranks badly across all these categories, due to innovation, transport and environmental scores.

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Cape Town and Johannesburg

“South Africa only has two big hitters from an economic perspective, namely Cape Town and Johannesburg, but neither are in the top 200 global cities,” says Tom Walker, co-head of Global Listed Real Assets at international asset manager, Schroders.

Johannesburg scored 277 and Cape Town 316 in the ranking. Other South African cities considered in the index are Pretoria, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Kimberley, Buffalo City and Polokwane.

With transport, infrastructure helps to provide access to a wider pool of job opportunities, making it an important social leveller.

“A city with an efficient system for moving people, goods and data around will be more economically and socially sustainable, as people access more potential roles, while they use cars, buses and trucks significantly less, improving air quality and reducing emissions,” Walker says.

The density of the formal public transport system in Johannesburg is low compared to major European, North American, and Asian cities. Cape Town, on the other hand, has better rail coverage, but more limited air connectivity, although it is good compared to other cities.

Walker also notes that no South African city has access to the largest class of port, although Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth all receive a modest positive transport score benefit for having a cargo port.

In addition, the World Economic Forum infrastructure quality scores remain middling for South Africa, especially regarding its rail and road systems, although airport and port quality is scored noticeably better.

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The importance of environmental scores of cities

The UN forecasts that the world’s population will increase to nearly nine billion by 2035, and more than half of them will live in cities, which makes the environmental scores of cities very important.

Walker says the environmental score measures the ability of cities to respond to the demands of rapid global urbanisation and climate change.

Walker says cities have to focus on three key areas:

• physical risks to buildings from issues such as storms or wildfires
• well-being risk to humans working in these locations due to issues such as air quality
• policy, looking at how government policies may increase or decrease environmental risk. 

He says South Africa performs poorly, mainly on the components that relate to well-being and policy measures in cities.

“Well-being risk relates to the expectation that life will likely get more unpleasant for people living in these cities. Key metrics include water stress, heat stress, water quality and air quality.”

Walker points out that Johannesburg is especially hamstrung by poor air quality. On policy, he also notes South Africa’s ‘middle of the pack’ average scores on carbon, recycling, and general environmental policy, where the city received the lowest score.

Johannesburg can improve its scores by:

• reducing the CO₂ intensity of GDP production or CO₂ per inhabitant
• signing up to and sticking with international agreements on climate change
• more ambitious nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

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Innovation stifled by tertiary education

Another problem for South African cities is that innovation is stifled by their offering of our tertiary education.

Walker says high quality educational systems promote innovation and generate jobs in a city, while skilled graduates entering the workforce attract corporations and may launch their own businesses.

The resulting wages and wealth generation in turn fuel real estate demand.

“Only four out of the nine cities we cover in South Africa have a university in the top 1 000 universities that we consider,” he says.

Johannesburg has three universities and benefits from the University of Pretoria, which is caught within the ‘sphere of influence’ assumed to be exercised by Johannesburg, but only two of these institutions are in the top 1 000.

“The low relative performance of the Universities of Witwatersrand and Johannesburg seems to be driven by the low academic reputation score and few citations (publications in academic journals) per faculty member. Academics are not generating research that is cited worldwide very often compared to other universities and low employer reputation,” says Walker.

Cape Town, on the other hand, fares a little better, with the University of Cape Town higher up in the rankings, thanks to a notably higher academic and employer reputation.