Centre for Development and Enterprise

Centre for Development and Enterprise CDE is South Africa’s leading development think tank focusing on growth, jobs and democracy.

Since its establishment in 1995, CDE has been consulting widely, gathering evidence and generating innovative policy recommendations on issues critical to economic growth and democratic consolidation. By examining South African and international experience, CDE formulates practical policy proposals outlining ways in which South Africa can tackle major social and economic challenges. CDE has a spec

ial focus on the role of business and markets in development. CDE disseminates its research and proposals to a national audience of policy-makers, opinion formers and the wider public through printed and digital publications, which receive wide media coverage. Our track record of successful engagement enables CDE to bring together experts and stakeholders to debate the policy implications of research findings.

07/09/2026

📍 Why does Johannesburg matter to South Africa's growth?

Johannesburg hosts 70% of South African company head offices, about 11% of the country's jobs and 21.8% of personal income tax collected nationally. It is the country's financial and corporate centre and a critical source of employment, investment and opportunity.

But the city's decline is putting that role under pressure. Weak municipal finances, failing infrastructure, governance challenges and a struggling economy are not separate problems. Together, they threaten Johannesburg's ability to function as a platform for growth.

Restoring South Africa's growth engine is a national priority. That is the focus of CDE's new "Johannesburg Matters: Fixing South Africa's growth engine" series. Over the coming weeks, this 8-part series will examine the foundations of the city's crisis and what it will take to restore Johannesburg's capacity for growth and opportunity.

📄 Read Joburg in Jeopardy, the first report in the series here: https://cde.org.za/johannesburg-matters-joburg-in-jeopardy/

04/09/2026

Johannesburg's financial crisis is accelerating. The City's finances appear sustainable and solvent largely because unpaid bills are treated as revenue.

Non-payment has reached such a scale that the current municipal model has become unsustainable. The City's response has made the situation worse: charging compliant customers more, underinvesting in infrastructure and delaying payments to suppliers.

This has created a vicious spiral downwards – a doom loop around services, debt and utilities. Gross debt has been growing at 17% a year, while provisions against that debt have been growing at 19% a year, reflecting the City's reduced expectations of what it can recover.

How can Johannesburg turn this around?
"We believe the city can be fixed. And that a reforming new political leadership can make a real difference. They can't fix everything at once and they certainly can't do it alone," says Ann Bernstein, CDE executive director.

📄 Download Joburg's Broken Budget, Report Two in the "Johannesburg Matters: Fixing South Africa's Growth Engine" series here: https://cde.org.za/joburgs-broken-budget/

04/09/2026

🏙️ What makes a city thrive?

Economist Ed Glaeser argues that cities should be judged not by how many poor people live in them, but by how quickly they are able to move out of poverty.

For Johannesburg, that is a powerful measure of what the city should enable: people finding work, businesses expanding, new businesses emerging and families building better futures.
Johannesburg has enormous potential to create dynamic economic activity and provide ladders out of poverty for millions of people.

As Joburg in Jeopardy, Report One in CDE's "Johannesburg Matters" series, shows, the city's economic potential remains enormous. The challenge is to restore the conditions that allow that potential to translate into opportunity and upward mobility.

📄 Read Joburg in Jeopardy here: https://cde.org.za/johannesburg-matters-joburg-in-jeopardy/

03/09/2026

"If you can't fix this city, you have to ask the question – can you fix the country?" – Ann Bernstein, CDE executive director.

CDE is introducing a series of reports, "Johannesburg Matters: Fixing South Africa's growth engine", a major research programme into the crisis confronting the city and what will be required to rebuild it.

🎥 Watch highlights from the launch of Joburg's Broken Budget, Report Two in the series, featuring Ann Bernstein, Anthony Altbeker and Daniel Mminele.

📄 Read the full report here: https://cde.org.za/joburgs-broken-budget/

02/09/2026

Johannesburg's economic decline is putting opportunity under pressure. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Johannesburg recorded the highest official unemployment rate among South Africa's metropolitan municipalities at 33.8%. Including discouraged work-seekers, the rate rose to 38.9%.

Between April 2025 and June 2026, Johannesburg lost 90 000 jobs, while Cape Town gained 57 000.
The city's continued decline damages the prospects of the poor, the middle class and business. Yet Johannesburg remains a city with enormous economic potential – a place where young people can build a future, businesses can expand, new businesses can emerge and families can prosper.

The challenge is to restore the conditions that allow that potential to translate into employment, investment and upward mobility.

Joburg in Jeopardy, Report One in CDE's "Johannesburg Matters: Fixing South Africa's growth engine" series: examines what is undermining Johannesburg's economy and what will be required to change its trajectory.

📄 Read Joburg in Jeopardy here: https://cde.org.za/johannesburg-matters-joburg-in-jeopardy/

The City's latest budgets are not credible.Near the end of the 2024/25 financial year, the City's adjustment budget proj...
01/09/2026

The City's latest budgets are not credible.

Near the end of the 2024/25 financial year, the City's adjustment budget projected a surplus of about R2.2 billion. Twelve months later, pre-audit figures showed a deficit of about R1.9 billion. That is a swing of roughly R4.1 billion for a financial year that was almost over when the first projection was made.

If the City can be that wrong about the financial year it is already living through, why should residents, lenders and suppliers believe its three-year forecasts?

A budget is supposed to be a plan. Johannesburg's budgets increasingly look like acts of hope or, perhaps, deception. They assume away the hard choices. They project implausible improvements that are not convincingly justified.

"The budget is quite simply a mathematical impossibility."

📄 Read CDE's Joburg's Broken Budget, Report Two in the Johannesburg Matters series: https://cde.org.za/joburgs-broken-budget/

31/08/2026

What does Johannesburg's infrastructure decline look like? The City's transport infrastructure is in an advanced state of disrepair.

The estimated maintenance backlog now stands at R90 billion for roads and R37 billion for bridges. Between July and December 2025, residents reported 23,572 potholes to the Johannesburg Roads Agency, an average of nearly 3,900 every month.

During the final quarter of 2025, approximately 55 per cent of the City's traffic lights experienced faults.

In a large, sprawling city like Johannesburg, transport is the nerve system of economic life. Potholed roads and broken traffic lights make it harder and more expensive for people to move around the city, get to work and do business.

Joburg in Jeopardy examines the depth and scale of Johannesburg's crisis and what it means for the future of South Africa's most important city.

📄 Read Joburg in Jeopardy, the first report in CDE's new "Johannesburg Matters: Fixing South Africa's growth engine" series: http://cde.org.za/johannesburg-matters-joburg-in-jeopardy/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=Centre%20for%20Development%20and%20Enterprise

28/08/2026

Johannesburg's crisis is no longer simply a local government problem. This is a city at the centre of South Africa's financial and corporate economy, and a critical source of employment, investment and opportunity.

Unfortunately, Johannesburg has descended into deep dysfunction and severe financial stress. Infrastructure is collapsing, service delivery is failing, the cost of doing business is rising, entrepreneurs, investors and skilled professionals are leaving, many residents are becoming poorer, and there is little effective planning for the future.

If Johannesburg cannot be fixed, can we fix South Africa? That is the central question of Joburg in Jeopardy, the first report in CDE's new "Johannesburg Matters: Fixing South Africa's growth engine" series.

📄 Read Joburg in Jeopardy here: http://cde.org.za/johannesburg-matters-joburg-in-jeopardy/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=Centre%20for%20Development%20and%20Enterprise

Johannesburg is dangerously short of cash. And the consequences are visible across the city.Please join us for the onlin...
20/08/2026

Johannesburg is dangerously short of cash. And the consequences are visible across the city.

Please join us for the online launch of Joburg’s Broken Budget, the second report in CDE’s Johannesburg Matters series.

The report shows how years of unrealistic budgeting have helped drive Johannesburg into a chronic financial crisis. The City budgets for revenues it cannot collect, while failing to keep its costs in line with the cash actually coming in.

The pressures are mounting. Over the past five years, average remuneration in the City has risen by about 10% a year, an extraordinary increase for a municipality under such severe financial strain.

What went wrong? What needs to change if the City is to fund the basic services and infrastructure on which its future depends?

Join Daniel Mminele, chairman of Nedbank Group and CDE Board Member, who will chair the event; Ann Bernstein, CDE’s executive director, who will present the report’s key findings and recommendations; and Antony Altbeker, independent consultant with considerable experience in public finance and author of the research paper commissioned by CDE, Johannesburg's Finances (2026).

📅 Tuesday 25 August 2026
⏰ 10:00–11:30am
🔗 Register: https://cde-org-za.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3bJNn8F2SOe0cW65QWSTfg

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