Maimane: State capture never ended; it just moved to municipalities [PODCAST]
· Citizen
Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Dr Mmusi Maimane says Johannesburg needs fresh leadership, targeted infrastructure investment, and uncompromising accountability to reverse years of urban decay.
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Speaking to The Citizen’s Itumeleng Mafisa on The Movement podcast, Maimane argued that the city’s problems require more than repairing potholes.
“Potholes are a problem, and I have felt the pain, but they are not the only problem in this city,” Maimane said. “Because even after we’ve fixed all the potholes, young people will still be unemployed, [and] Johannesburg will still be dysfunctional.”
Johannesburg needs a new vision
Maimane rejected the pessimist view that Johannesburg’s decline is a natural global cycle. Instead, he argued that the city must cultivate new economic drivers beyond its historical association with gold mining.
“The fundamental issue for Johannesburg is that it was discovered as the city of gold; we no longer mine gold in Johannesburg,” Maimane said.
“What is the new gold in Joburg? The new gold… is firstly the alternate economies that Johannesburg gives us, whether it’s in education, care, IT industries as it pertains to AI, or the financial services hub.”
Addressing municipal failures, Maimane pointed to bloated administrations, poor revenue collection, and a fragmented network of entities like Joburg Water and City Power that insulate leadership from accountability.
He noted that revenue collected for essential utilities often fails to reach infrastructure maintenance, driving non-revenue water losses past 40%.
Townships must become economic hubs
Maimane rejected the idea that municipalities have to choose between supporting suburbs or developing townships.
“To put townships and suburbs against each other is a fundamental error in logic,” he stated. “If the community of Alex is not being well looked after, it is common cause that Sandton cannot survive… You don’t fix apartheid spatial planning by playing musical chairs.”
Instead, Maimane called for high-speed public transport integration and economic incentives, such as zero-rating corporate tax, to encourage businesses to set up operations in areas like Alexandra and Dobsonville.
“If we provide high-calibre, high-future-based internet provision in Dobsonville, it means the people of Dobsonville can live, work, and be able to experience economic benefits there,” he argued.
Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane delivers his address during the launch of the party’s 2026 Local Government Elections manifesto at Fairview Primary School in Johannesburg, 5 September 2026. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen
Corruption requires consequences
Reflecting on revelations from the Madlanga Commission, Maimane warned that state capture never ended but simply migrated into local government and municipal policing.
“State capture at municipal level will make state capture at national look like a picnic,” Maimane warned. “The only thing politicians fear in this country is the embarrassment of the newspapers for two days… They don’t think, ‘I’m going to get arrested.’ They don’t fear that. It’s all about the image.”
To tackle this, he called for depoliticising the police, increasing funding for the SIU and NPA, establishing specialised corruption courts, and deploying trained finance professionals into struggling municipalities.
BOSA sets conditions for coalitions
With local government elections approaching, Maimane made it clear that BOSA will not enter governance pacts blindly.
“What is the point of being in a coalition without knowing what is meant to be done?” he asked.
BOSA plans to campaign on a strict 10-point plan covering infrastructure, governance, and crime, requiring potential partners to sign onto concrete deliverables. Furthermore, Maimane stressed that all negotiations must be transparent.
“All negotiations must be public, because these backdoor deals, that’s what ends up being a problem,” Maimane said.
“What you desperately need is a written-out agreement… so that my mother in Dobsonville can say, ‘You guys said you are going to put a speed bump here… where is it?'”
For Maimane, successful local government requires measurable commitments rather than political promises without clear outcomes.
Podcast producer: Caslian Scott
Camera operator: Caslian Scott
Video editor: Dylan Mohlala