Global fail: SA cities far from world-class

Johannesburg has a long way to go to become a world-class city – being ranked a lowly 277th in a list of the top cities globally, but Cape Town is even worse, coming it at only 316th.

The lack of public transport and poor air quality in South African cities means they lag behind the rest of the world. And they’re not even the best in Africa, being beaten into third and fourth places on the continent by Cairo and Alexandria 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 low innovation, transport and environmental scores.

“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,” said Tom Walker, co-head of Global Listed Real Assets at international asset manager Schroders.

Other South African cities considered in the index are Pretoria, Durban, Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), Bloemfontein, Kimberley, Buffalo City and Polokwane.

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.”

ALSO READ: Is a 24-hour workday in Johannesburg feasible? SA youth question its implementation

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

Walker also noted that no South African city has access to the largest class of port, although Cape Town, Durban and Gqeberha 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 SA, especially regarding its rail and road systems, although airport and port quality is scored noticeably better.

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

“Cities have to focus on three key areas: physical risks to buildings from issues such as storms or wildfires, wellbeing risk to humans working in these locations due to issues such as air quality and then policy, looking at how government policies may increase or decrease environmental risk.”

He said SA performs poorly mainly on the components that relate to wellbeing and policy measures. “Wellbeing 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 pointed out that Johannesburg is especially hamstrung by poor air quality. On policy, he also noted SA’s “middle of the pack” average scores on carbon, recycling and general environmental policy.

“Johannesburg can improve its scores by reducing the carbon dioxide intensity of GDP production or carbon dioxide per inhabitant, signing up to and sticking with international agreements on climate change and more ambitious nationally determined contributions.”

Another problem for SA cities is that innovation is stifled by their offering of tertiary education. Walker said high quality educational systems promote innovation and generate jobs in a city. The resulting wages and wealth generation, in turn, fuel real estate demand.

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

ALSO READ: Out of 100 students, only 12 go to university – Nzimande

Johannesburg has three universities and benefits from the University of Pretoria, which is within the sphere of influence assumed to be exercised by Joburg.

“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.”

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

– ina@citizen.co.za

SA’s doctors are jumping ship – Premiers, MECs, hospital CEOs are to blame