The CEO-led business partnership that is currently assisting the South African government with the implementation of turnaround initiatives in electricity, transport, crime and youth unemployment is considering adding a new workstream to focus on the recovery of the City of Johannesburg.

Discovery CEO Adrian Gore, who is coordinating the partnership that is being implemented under the aegis of Business For South Africa (B4SA), said the decision to consider adding Johannesburg as an additional focus area was based on the importance of the city in raising overall growth and confidence.

Highlighting the positive results that had been achieved in addressing loadshedding in particular, Gore said he was optimistic that the recovery of Johannesburg could benefit from a similar level of focus and support.

Gore, who has been a leading figure in facilitating the partnership on the basis that it would help stimulate growth and job creation, and in changing the narrative about South Africa in a way that would attract domestic and foreign investment, described the current poor state of the country’s economic hub as an obstacle to shifting investor sentiment.

“There’s low-hanging fruit, we think.

“There’s a lot of expertise and there’s a lot of involvement in the city anyway from business – so can it be organised and structured in a way that’s constructive?

“We think that that needs to be investigated,” Gore explained.

Discovery, he noted, had filled hundreds of thousands of potholes, which had given him confidence that it was feasible to make a difference in the city.

“Obviously there are some profound issues that will take a lot more time, but there is such a vast interest in the city, as the economic hub, that to see decline is very, very problematic.”

B4SA had already identified CEOs that could lead the workstream and was currently conducting an assessment of the prospect of adding Johannesburg as its fifth focal area, with a final decision likely in November.

It comes ahead of what is poised to be a highly contested municipal election in 2026, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) having selected its former leader Helen Zille, who was a successful mayor of the City of Cape Town before becoming Premier of the Western Cape, as its mayoral candidate for Johannesburg.

It also follows a spat that has arisen within the African National Congress, which currently leads a coalition government in Johannesburg, over President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent dressing down of the party’s municipal councillors, where he suggested they could learn lessons from DA-led municipalities.

B4SA’s Martin Kingston stressed that should Johannesburg be added as a focal area it would do so in a way that avoided politics and focused on specific areas of implementation support.

“We are not going to become involved in the politics. We've made that clear at all levels of government, including at a national level,” Kingston said.