CityLab Daily: Political Dysfunction Brings Chaos to Africa’s Richest City
Also today: The costly allure of the showstopper concert hall, and Madrid's rising property prices threaten a housing crunch.
The collapsed embankment of a bridge in downtown Johannesburg on May 23.
Photographer: Leon Sadiki/BloombergJohannesburg may be the richest African city, but it has fallen into chaos as South Africa grapples with an ongoing governance crisis riddled with corruption and political instability. Basic utilities like electricity, transit and sanitation have collapsed — leading to rolling blackouts that leave self-appointed traffic controllers to assist drivers, and triggering the worst-ever cholera outbreak in the nearby city of Pretoria.
As one expert tells Bloomberg’s S'thembile Cele, “We may not be at a point in South Africa where we are a failed state, but we are certainly a failed government.” Today on CityLab: Africa’s Richest City Is Crumbling Under Chaos and Corruption