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South Africa’s largest cities are still seen as attractive destinations for investment – but their sheen is dulling, fast.
This is according to the 2023 Global Cities Report by management consulting firm Kearney, which shows a mixed bag of results for Africa.
The Global Cities Index (GCI) aims to quantify how much a city can attract, retain, and generate investment, people and ideas, with cities measured on five dimensions: human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, political engagement and business activity.
New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, and Beijing all retained their places in the top five, whilst Surat in India came in last at 165.
As per the rankings, Johannesburg remained 58th on the list.
South Africa’s economic hub saw improvements in the Human Capital and Political Engagement dimensions (15th in the world.)
However, drops in the Information Exchange and Cultural Experience dimensions offset these improvements.
Cape Town, on the other hand, fell two places in the rankings to 84th position.
It saw declines in Human Capital, Business Activity, and Cultural Experience, mainly due to the heightened global competition for talent, changing business dynamics and the disruptive economic forces in Africa.
That said, the Western Cape’s capital did improve by four sports in the Information Exchange dimension, including through an improved online presence.
Overall, South Africa’s cities were still the highest-ranked African cities, with Nairobi, Kenya (down four spots to 86th), Accra, Ghana (up two spots to 104th), and Lagos, Nigeria (up three places to 109th) all trailing.
Despite the overall GBI score remaining steady in 2023 following several years of decline, the average score for African cities increased from 2022.
| City | 2021 Rank | 2022 Rank | 2023 Rank |
| New York, USA | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| London, UK | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Paris, France | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Tokyo, Japan | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Beijing, China | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Perth, Australia | 56 | 59 | 56 |
| Tel Aviv, Israel | 51 | 52 | 57 |
| Johannesburg, South Africa | 55 | 58 | 58 |
| Taipei, Taiwan | 49 | 51 | 59 |
| Chengdu, China | 88 | 88 | 83 |
| Cape Town, South Africa | 81 | 80 | 84 |
| Saint Petersburg, Russia | 78 | 81 | 85 |
| Surat, India | 156 | 155 | 156 |
Outlook concerns
Nevertheless, the outlook for South African cities is worrying.
Johannesburg and Cape Town dropped in the Global Cities Outlook (GCO), which looks to identify cities most likely to achieve global prominence in the feature.
The GCO looks at four key areas with equal weighting: personal well-being, economics, innovation and governance.
San Fransisco, USA was named the city with the best global outlook – climbing 12 positions since 2022, followed by Copenhagen, Denmark.
In the US, second-tier cities performed well after tracking talent and capital by establishing themselves as rivals to more established global cities after several years of turbulence.
Despite the improvements for certain metros, the past year has been tough for many cities around the world amid a high degree of instability across economic, social, and political dimensions, with declines in the core governance and economic metrics highlighting these difficulties.
South Africa’s two biggest cities have not been immune to this, dropping down the rankings.
Johannesburg fell from 116th in 2022 to 131st in 2023, whilst Cape Town dropped six places to 128th.
| City | 2021 Rank | 2022 Rank | 2023 Rank |
| San Francisco, USA | 25 | 13 | 1 |
| Copenhagen, Denmark | 21 | 8 | 2 |
| London, UK | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Luxembourg | 11 | 3 | 4 |
| Paris, France | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| Cape Town, South Africa | 122 | 122 | 128 |
| Casablanca, Morocco | 132 | 129 | 129 |
| Bandung, Indonesia | 118 | 130 | 130 |
| Johannesburg, South Africa | 126 | 116 | 131 |
| Caracas, Venezuela | 156 | 156 | 156 |
Read: CCMA warning for businesses in South Africa
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