“What makes Johannesburg different? What makes Johannesburg a world city in South Africa as opposed to say other cities in the country? I think that Jo'burg does enjoy a certain vibrancy, a certain rate of dynamism which has eluded some other cities in the country. I think there are more opportunities in Johannesburg for people to create incomes for themselves and to create lives for themselves and I think Jo'burg is a less segregated city than many of the others, particularly I am thinking of the problems faced in Cape Town and I think that creates a fantastic platform for us but it comes along with the great deal of difficulty and challenge.”
“When looking at the transformation of Johannesburg’s Central Business District (CBD), we must consider the issue of adaptability. In the early 1990s, the various CBDs in South African cities had pretty much the same vacancy rates. What happened after that is that different CBDs went different routes. I am increasingly of the view that it had to do with the adaptability of the built environment. I believe that some of the CBDs had more, if I can call it, B grade office, the second tier of office space in South Africa. They were able to adapt to changing conditions better than others. Johannesburg had a very high proportion of top – A grade – office space. I think for many years there was a view to keep that office space at that level and to keep the environment around it reflective of the A grade office space and that may have cost Johannesburg as we moved along.”
“In Johannesburg, I notice a peculiarly ambivalent attitude with regard to globalization for a variety of reasons. At one level, there is the argument that much of the decline of the local, urban and regional economies seemed to coincide with the period associated with intensive globalization. So in some ways, there are groups of people who see globalization as the cause of some of the primary economic problems of the present. There are some who of course think that globalization is the only way in the future for developing a competitive economy. So this is one of the kinds of sources of ambiguity. The other one is globalization coincides with the end of apartheid. I sometimes hear people a frightening interpretation that after the apartheid the economy got worse, poverty increased. I am not sure what they assume one derives from observation but it is certainly something that is in the air for some people in Johannesburg, making the issue of globalization even more complicated.”
