{"id":82815,"date":"2015-03-18T23:55:43","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T21:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=82815"},"modified":"2015-03-19T10:47:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T08:47:59","slug":"why-joburg-is-the-best-city-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/82815\/why-joburg-is-the-best-city-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Joburg is the best city in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) ranks the best cities in Africa when it comes to investment and future growth.<\/p>\n

PwC isolated and ranked the top 20 African cities of opportunity according to five key metrics, namely: the current state of development and future potential; location; nature of opportunity; ‘must-have’ features; and time-scale for investments.<\/p>\n

The ranking also looked at 29 variables across four categories – including infrastructure, human capital, economics and social demographics – to determine the defining scores.<\/p>\n

In South Africa, Johannesburg ranked third among the 20 African cities, with a score of 377.<\/p>\n

The city was ranked below Tunis, Tunisia (417) and Cairo, Egypt (438).<\/p>\n

Top 10 cities in Africa<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/strong><\/td>\nCity<\/strong><\/td>\nScore<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nCairo<\/td>\n438<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nTunis<\/td>\n417<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nJohannesburg<\/td>\n377<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nCasablanca<\/td>\n364<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nAlgiers<\/td>\n336<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nAccra<\/td>\n332<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nNairobi<\/td>\n321<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nLagos<\/td>\n321<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nAddis Ababa<\/td>\n312<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nKampala<\/td>\n308<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n
\"Africa<\/a>

Africa top cities<\/p><\/div>\n

Johannesburg performance<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Category<\/strong><\/td>\nRank<\/strong><\/td>\nScore<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Economics<\/td>\n4th<\/td>\n115<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Infrastructure<\/td>\n3rd<\/td>\n107<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Human capital<\/td>\n2nd<\/td>\n81<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Society and demographics<\/td>\n14th<\/td>\n74<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Overall<\/strong><\/td>\n3rd<\/strong><\/td>\n377<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

Across the four categories, Joburg scored most points in economics, despite being ranked 4th overall in that segment.<\/p>\n

The city ranked top in Africa for its financial services and GPD per capita, and second for being home to top-500 companies, and for ease of doing business.<\/p>\n

However, being the economic giant of a country with one of the highest pay gaps in the world<\/a><\/strong>, the city is ranked stone last for its GINI coefficient.<\/p>\n

Joburg also scores top marks for communication infrastructure, airport connectivity and levels of literacy and numeracy in Africa – as well as ranking highly for levels of health expenditure, transport infrastructure, and number of enrolled graduates.<\/p>\n

Places where the city falls flat, however, include the cost of housing, a poor health system and slow rate of GDP growth.<\/p>\n

Joburg’s worst-performing segment is social demographics, where it ranks 14th out of the 20 cities.<\/p>\n

Factors which drag the city down include slow growth of the middle class in the city (high disparity between the rich and poor) as well as high levels of crime – the second-worst out of all ranked cities.<\/p>\n

Joburg ranked last for levels of diversity (Weighted combination of a country\u2019s migration balance) and population growth in that segment.<\/p>\n

Why Joburg rocks<\/h3>\n

According to PwC, Johannesburg is a city that is “the exception that proves the rule”. It sits as an outlier, being the only sub-Saharan city in the top 5, and also one of the ‘youngest’ cities on the list.<\/p>\n

The origins of #1, Cairo, go back (at least) to the fourth century AD, of #2 Tunis to the fourth century BC, of #4 Casablanca to the seventh century AD, and of #5 Algiers to the fifth century AD.<\/p>\n

Officially founded in 1886, Johannesburg is thus a relatively young city, compared to other cities ranked.<\/p>\n

In its short time, it quickly developed a wide-ranging urban infrastructure and municipal organisation that was comparable to more mature, and much larger and more affluent, cities, PwC noted.<\/p>\n

Notably, the report highlights that the city has experienced rapid growth since its birth:<\/p>\n