A R3.96 trillion global asset-management firm with South African origins will financially back infrastructure projects to reverse the decay of Johannesburg, the continent\u2019s financial capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe major city in the country needs to be turned around,\u201d Ninety One Chief Executive Officer Hendrik du Toit said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt has been appallingly managed\u201d, and his firm is \u201cmaking plans to help \u2014 not just us, but within our ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Africa\u2019s largest economy will hold municipal elections on 4 November to determine which parties will run areas like Johannesburg, where years of political instability and mismanagement have left it owing hundreds of millions of dollars to service providers and unable to provide consistent services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A coalition led by the African National Congress, the biggest political party, currently runs the city, but polls identify veteran opposition politician Helen Zille as the front-runner to become the next mayor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf that city doesn\u2019t turn around, the retention of executive talent would be an issue because people don\u2019t want to live in places where the water is just cut off and where the roads have too many potholes,\u201d Du Toit said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think it could be turned around relatively quickly, although it\u2019ll be a huge job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A legacy of corruption and mismanagement under President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s predecessor, Jacob Zuma, still dogs an economy that\u2019s expanded less than 1% annually for more than a decade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Companies have consequently been reluctant to invest and are \u201choarding cash on their balance sheets,\u201d according to Du Toit, who sees signs that corporate spending is starting to recover.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The central bank\u2019s most recent Quarterly Bulletin showed private-sector fixed investment fell in the three months through June,even as corporate bank deposits grew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Initiatives such as a private-sector boom in renewable energy and having a corporate partner modernise Pier 2 \u2014 the sub-Saharan African region\u2019s biggest container gateway \u2014 at the port of Durban can serve as models for ways to involve \u201cthe best in the world\u201d in other infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe investment dollars will start following the results,\u201d Du Toit said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of opportunity to deploy money, as long as we can do it at the right price, and we are going to move domestic dollars first, and then bring in international dollars once the proof points are there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Du Toit helped found Investec\u2019s asset-management unit in 1991. The business eventually became Ninety One, which the <\/strong>lender spun off in 2020 and became an independently listed company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A major asset management company has said it will provide financial backing for plans to revitalise Johannesburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":842528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2111034663007363394","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2238974560256276","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17911315740500479","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26765,1996,19703],"class_list":["post-879184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-hendrik-du-toit","tag-johannesburg","tag-ninety-one-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879184"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":880154,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879184\/revisions\/880154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}