Johannesburg wants to be a “world class African city”—just not for African foreigners.

A melting pot bubbling over? (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

As Johannesburg’s mayor posed on the rooftop of newly gentrified building this week, his accompanying social media posts made it clear that this what he wants the heart of Africa’s economic hub to be. To live up to the tagline, “A World Class African City of the Future,” Johannesburg’s poor and African migrant community may have to pay the price.

A week earlier, an image shot from another high-rise nearby showed the city’s streets littered with mattresses, pots and clothes as evicted families scrambled to protect their few belongings. Mashaba and city officials were making good on their promise to step up raids of hijacked buildings in the inner-city.



By Lynsey Chutel.
Full story at Quartz.