Johannesburg - once celebrated as Africa's economic powerhouse and the "City of Gold" - is now in a state of profound decline, according to business leaders, analysts, civic organisations and the National Treasury.
Although it remains South Africa's financial and commercial hub, the city is marked by infrastructure collapse, municipal dysfunction, corruption, financial distress, violent crime and widespread urban decay. Its golden lustre has turned to rust.
Today Johannesburg's population stands at almost 5m and it is one of the most diverse and cosmopolitan urban centres in Africa - a place shaped by migration, commerce, ambition and cultural fusion.
Here, South Africans live alongside large communities of people from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Pakistan, India, China and many other countries, lending the city a distinctly international character.
Originally published by African Business.