Born in Tanzania, living in South Africa, and dressing the world, Anissa Mpungwe, is difficult to pin down.
In the end, we manage to do it online.
I look for her on Google Maps, and set out to seek her home address, with nothing but the online search tool. I travel with FORBES WOMAN AFRICA’s layout artist Lucy Nkosi. Luckily for us, just outside her home, which we eventually locate, we bump into one of Mpungwe’s two sisters, a student of architecture, leaving for her classes.
She helps us get in touch with the designer and set up an appointment with her at her Kyalami studio in Midrand, north of Johannesburg.
Around Mpungwe is a melange of color and couture, as she shares her story.
<div id="attachment_35909" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35909" class="wp-image-35909 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2691-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2691-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2691-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2691-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2691-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2691.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Anissa Mpungwe. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla.</div>
Mpungwe has been in South Africa since she was 10, attending junior school, high school and university in the Rainbow Nation. Until the age of 19, she was just another foreigner in South Africa. 
But her career took off after that.
“After graduating in South Africa, getting my degree in fashion and marketing, I went to do my post- graduation in London. They have a good network there, so you get to work with different spaces and [get enough] work experience for you to know what you want to do; and I didn’t know which part of the fashion industry I wanted to be in. So I had to do all those different [types of] work experiences to know I definitely didn’t want to work for a magazine, [and] definitely not in a factory,” says Mpungwe.
Her career kick-started in South Africa in 2008 after winning the Elle New Talent competition, when she had the opportunity to work with fashion retailer Mr Price (MRP). Thereafter, she showcased her creations at fashion weeks in South Africa; however the biggest jump was in 2010 when she showcased at the prestigious New York Fashion Week in the United States.
“For me, it was an odd jump,” she says.
From being a student overseas, coming back home to South Africa trying to figure out where her career was going, to winning a competition, working with MRP to have her range out and then off to another country representing her home country, Tanzania.
That was in 2010 in New York City that she believes was the year that launched her career and the Loin Cloth &amp; Ashes brand.
Her first store opened in 2012 in Maboneng Precinct, a trendy art hub outside Johannesburg’s Central Business District.
Visitors to her store have included international musicians such as Swedish singer-songwriter Yukimi Nagano from Little Dragon, and American singer-songwriter Amel Larrieux.
She has over the years also had the opportunity to dress American singer-model-actress Solange Knowles for the cover of Elle as well as local South African stars such as Lira, Anele Mdoda, Bridget Masinga, and Simphiwe Dana amongst a slew of other celebrities.
In 2013, Mpungwe won Emerging Designer of the Year Africa awarded by African Fashion International.
She worked with MRP producing ranges reaching countries from Nigeria to Namibia, Botswana and stores across South Africa.
Mpungwe was also chosen to gift one of her designs to former American First Lady Michelle Obama during her visit to South Africa in 2015.
<div id="attachment_35910" style="width: 693px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35910" class="wp-image-35910 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2450-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2450-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2450-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2450-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2450-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2450-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TLH_2450.jpg 1366w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />Mpungwe dresses a model with one of her designs. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla.</div>
“That for me was a very proud moment because of who she is, how she operates as a female. I [received] a little letter from her to frame to put next to the accolades. As much as those things excite me, to be honest with you, I think it is the everyday people that make me feel good about what I do,” she says.
Over the last few years, she has worked with corporate brands such as Maserati, Converse and Nestle among others.
Mpungwe operates out of two studios in South Africa and one in Tanzania employing 17 people.
“It has been great, a good learning curve. I’ve learned a lot, in such a short period. I’ve learned the business of fashion and the construction of clothing, the product itself,” says J K Khoza, one of her fashion interns.
Mpungwe is now sharing her experiences and showcasing her creations in the hope of seeing more young Africans traverse the globe spreading the beauty and bounties of African fashion.

Anissa_2066

Designs For Africa, And Michelle Obama

The Zebra Inn, the scene of a recent double murder, was billed by local media as part of the inner city rejuvenation project centered on the Maboneng precinct on Johannesburg’s east side. Technically, it was an oversight.
The Zebra Inn’s only connection to the private sector driven city renewal is the eclectic black and white stripes adorning its exterior. Otherwise it is the antithesis of the Maboneng vision. Entering the Zebra Inn was always a laborious affair, involving a series of intercoms to choreograph navigation through two separate heavy duty security gates while under the constant gaze of CCTV cameras.
The decor on the top-floor bar is a clutter of dead African wildlife mounted on its walls. However, the most glaring example separating the Zebra Inn from the Maboneng philosophy of embracing the city is its claustrophobic interior. The city’s vistas are shuttered from view in nothing more than an act of heresy to the architects converting light industrial buildings and office blocks into loft apartments, rooftop bars and street cafes in the area.
The hallmark of Maboneng, and the other developers colonizing the area,  is the openness and intimacy with the street and its celebration of the city’s skyline. Its more subtle aesthetic is making obsolete the architecture of fear, such as security gates, razor wire and burglar bars, in favor of a 24/7 legion of well-equipped private security guards. The police keep a low profile and are usually only spotted lunching at a local shisha nyama – a restaurant that specializes in barbequed meat.
<div id="attachment_33173" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33173" class="size-medium wp-image-33173" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Maboneng-poor-person-e1502964508541-300x201.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="201" />The poorer community of Maboneng worry they will be forced out (Photo by Guy Oliver)</div>
The killing of journalist Johann Botha and the Zebra Inn’s owner, Werner ‘Swazi’ Peherchtold, 76, was said by the police to be a botched robbery. Local news, however, suggests Botha may have been the target of assassination because of his investigations into land claim fraud. The neighborhood conspiracists thought otherwise, speculating it was a professional hit on Peherchtold through his steadfast refusal to sell his building to the many suitors drawn to take advantage of the localized property boom.
Austrian by birth, and a former professional hunter by trade, Peherchtold bought the Zebra Inn after many years in Swaziland – hence his moniker – and a few years before property developer Jonathan Liebmann began his rebranding of the inner city suburb of Jeppestown to Maboneng. It began with the 2008 acquisition of a 1911 warehouse and repackaged as the multi-use Arts on Main. Since then, Liebmann’s property empire Propertuity has acquired a catalogue of 70 buildings, including regeneration projects in Durban, with an estimated value of R1 billion (around $75 million). In 2016, RMB Holdings acquired a 30% stake in Propertuity.
The Zebra Inn, diagonally opposite the Jeppe Police Station, was reputedly a brothel before Peherchtold bought the building that also housed his prolific book collection and taxidermy business. The Zebra Inn provides a lesson why eccentricity can never have a definitive style and it became a magnet for foreign travelers staying in Maboneng, who relished describing a night’s drinking at the bar as “going on safari”.
The Zebra Inn did, however, find a niche within the ambitions of Liebmann “to build neighborhoods”. Its relative isolation made it ideal for late night drinking, providing the last refuge for the bitter-enders migrating from Maboneng’s conservative operating hours.
Although there is no curfew for Maboneng’s various bars and restaurants, one business owner, who declined to be identified, said even though he has a 2AM alcohol license, the bar is seldom open beyond 9PM. “It’s not worth it. People have bought apartments for millions of rands and you don’t want to get caught up in costly court actions about noise.”
The residential populations in the refurbished Propertuity buildings – and separate from the host of other property developers drawn to the area with a similar ethos – are predicted to reach about 20,000 people within a square kilometer by 2020.
The most precarious balancing act is the rapid influx of the middle class on the coat tails of hundreds of millions of rands, and rising, of property investment into the urban poverty.
“Poor people are feeling threatened that they are going to be evicted and part of the reason is the poor communication with them by developers,” says the business owner.
Maboneng, the Sesotho word for “Place of Light”, is on the doorstep of overcrowded apartheid-era single-sex hostels organized under a Zulu induna system. An anti-gentrification protest march through the area a few years ago was sparked by rumors of the hostels being upgraded. Any improvements to the hostels would inevitably lead to evictions, and violence, where the hostel numbers are estimated at around 10,000.
Propertuity marketing manager Nyiko Chauke dismisses out-of-hand gentrification comparisons.
“Gentrification is developing the space and chasing away the people to make room for the middle income. And there is a misunderstanding of what we are doing. We are building the neighborhood without chasing away people. And secondly we cater for the middle class and also blue collar workers.”
The company says its rental stock targets people earning between R12,000 ($900) and R30,000 ($2,250) monthly.
The concentration of non-residential light industrial buildings is a dream template for developers looking to interpret the urban lifestyle associated with the likes of New York’s Meatpacking District. The pace of development is snowballing with Propertuity’s recent acquisition of another couple of city blocks that extends along the Fox Street axis of the precinct into more urban decay.
The mantra of “building neighborhoods”, however, does not guarantee property speculators will not look to flip existing residential buildings using evictions for a quick profit, and in doing so rapidly push tensions between poor communities and developers into the red zone. Propertuity has actively side-stepped evictions, as have other developers so far, in growing their property portfolio. That does not discount other developers from employing eviction tactics.
“There are all these things happening around us outside of our control,” says Chauke.
Mfaniseni Sihlongonyane, an associate professor lecturing town planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, acknowledges that Propertuity “are attempting to be as inclusive as possible” but South Africa’s inequalities are too wide to incorporate all. While acknowledging developers’ efforts of providing a variety of rentals, he says urban accommodation cannot be left to market forces alone and there needs to be a genuine “social compact”.
Government social housing, which is one attempt to rewire the spatial apartheid legacy that condemned people to the perimeters of the metropolis on the basis of race, is not necessarily the panacea in its present form. Low social housing monthly rentals of R600 ($45), or even less, can be unaffordable and give way to “downward raiding,” says Sihlongonyane. The term describes the practice of social housing tenants sub-letting their accommodation for an income and then moving to alternate accommodation, usually informal settlements, and thereby defeating the aim of catering for the city’s poor.
There are “greenfield” constructions emerging, but none so innovative as New York-based architect Giuseppe Lignano’s six-storey luxury shipping container block of flats, at 30% of the structural costs of a mortar and brick equivalent.
Containers are an abundant resource given the world’s trade imbalances. Most containers make a one-way journey from China and about 80% of the world’s estimated 25 million containers lie idle at their destinations. Ligano says the structures, which can be quickly assembled, present an opportunity for low-cost housing initiatives.
Ligano and Liebmann professionally courted each other since 2013 and realized the two companies shared the same “sensibilities” towards Maboneng. They shy away from “glitzy buildings”, says Ligano, in favor of respecting “the grain of the neighborhood… more learning from the places themselves and holding dear the character that they have.”
<h1>Food For The City’s Soul</h1>
<div id="attachment_33172" style="width: 298px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33172" class=" wp-image-33172" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Saad-WEB-e1502964115632-300x201.jpg" alt="" width="288" height="193" />Saad Hamid (Photo by Guy Oliver)</div>
Saad Hamid, 31, and his partner – both in private life and business – Brooke Dickens, 27, are formally employed and opened the Maboneng Mexican-themed bar restaurant, The Gringo Cafe, as a sideline. Dickens works in the medical insurance industry, while Hamid has a job in the telecommunications sector.
Their ambition is to leave salaried employment and The Gringo is the first step towards that. They first toyed with the idea of a food truck, but the math of starting a business in Maboneng proved more cost effective and attractive.
The Main Street restaurant opened in November 2016 on the precinct’s periphery and in that short time has witnessed the area’s rapid growth with more apartments and businesses opening. The couple transferred their passion for food, from cooking for friends, into a business.
“So we decided to try the Mexican thing, with the cocktails and food,” says Hamid.
He studied fashion design and delights in the street culture being cultivated in the inner city.
“Maboneng is so influential art wise. The people who come here are very open-minded. It’s a different lifestyle and people feel like they are on holiday, hopping from place to place, creating a vibe that you just don’t get in other parts of Joburg.” &#8211; Written by Guy Oliver

Boom! Come Out Fighting

It was a passion for art. He quit his job after being influenced by international street art. He started small then grew to spraying walls in the city of Johannesburg. Now he travels the world spraying more walls for nature and conservation.
It’s a sunny midweek afternoon and FORBES AFRICA is off to meet Sonny in Rosebank, Johannesburg. He is a self-taught artist, painting murals big enough to challenge the animal poachers in Africa.
“I decided to teach myself how to paint; had to start from scratch. Had to learn to mix colors, learn to airbrush with a gun; my main passion was just to make things bigger and better,” says Sonny.
<div id="attachment_32693" style="width: 319px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32693" class="wp-image-32693 " src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/The-Buitengraght-Wolf-Cape-Town-by-Sonny1-200x300.jpg" alt="The Buitengracht Wolf, Cape Town (Photo by Sonny)" width="309" height="464" />The Buitengracht Wolf, Cape Town (Photo by Sonny)</div>
Sonny never went to art school. It all began when he started losing interest and slacking at his sales job. He started digital art and mixing PVA paint at the age of 23. That’s when he started getting commissions for indoor murals. It led to his first street mural, using a spray can for the first time, three years ago in Maboneng, the art heart of Johannesburg.
Sonny never looked back to his desk days in sales; he has become an international artist.
What gives him a kick is seeing passers-by – who might have never stepped into an art gallery – stopping to stare at his work.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2017/03/01/art-arts-sake-give-us-cash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Art For Art&#8217;s Sake &#8211; But Give Us Your Cash</a>
A few years after his first painting, it’s now his living. He charges between R1,000 ($75) and R2,000 ($150) per square meter and some of the murals can be as large as 400 meters squared.
The long-haired, short and soft-toned 30-year-old’s work is influenced by Africa, where he was born and bred. His work focuses on nature and animals, combining realism with fantasy.
“At the moment, I’m busy bringing more abstract elements in my work which hasn’t been seen in my paintings yet, but all my new murals will slowly have abstract elements and incorporate people,” he says.
<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2016/10/01/5323-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Mosaic Man With Magic In His Hands</a>
Sonny recently completed a body of work for a solo exhibition titled <a href="http://sonnyonline.com/tothebone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">To The Bone</a>.
This work combines wildlife imagery with a social message about the importance of animal conservation; a passion he truly has. He hopes to create international awareness of the fragile state of wildlife in the world.
<blockquote>“I aim to inspire people through the pure beauty of these animals, while reinforcing their importance in shaping our cultural identity.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_32694" style="width: 680px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32694" class=" wp-image-32694" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Transkei-Cheetah-Transkei-by-Sonny_Photo-by-Tessa-Cunliffe-300x200.jpg" alt="Sonny's Transkei Cheetah artwork, in Transkei (Photo by Tessa Cunliffe)" width="670" height="447" />Sonny&#8217;s Transkei Cheetah artwork, in Transkei (Photo by Tessa Cunliffe)</div>
Sonny has partnered with <a href="https://www.google.co.za/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi8pKmwxvHUAhViKsAKHX5RBpYQFggiMAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ifaw.org%2F&amp;usg=AFQjCNFOanECt8D37Y251dlwq0POsaorzg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">IFAW</a> (International Fund for Animal Welfare) to raise awareness through the murals and artworks and has a campaign to sell artwork online where a portion of the proceeds will be given to this fund.
“Anybody that sees the murals and follows the link will see what it’s about, and can give R10 or R20 ($1.50),” he says.
He also has a sponsorship drive, where companies or people can sponsor a wall or part of it. The money will be used to spread graffiti to more parts of the world. The sponsorship will enable him to fly over and paint a wall.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/06/26/no-reservations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Future Of African Women In Art</a>
He has recently painted in New York and other parts America. He will be moving on to Canada, London and then Amsterdam. He also has a series of murals to sort out for the rest of the world.
<blockquote>“I paint in third world countries where they have the animals but struggle to see the importance, but I also paint in first world countries where they have power over the rest of the world to try change legislations to help protect the animals,” he says.</blockquote>
African art is been noticed around the world thanks to the likes of Sonny. Not only is he making an income, he is making a difference in society by conserving nature with a spray can and walls.
(Featured photo by <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/author/tlhabi-monnakgotla/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Motlabana Monnakgotla</a>)
Stay up do date with Sonny&#8217;s latest work on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sonnyartist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sonnyartist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Instagram</a>
<div id="attachment_32696" style="width: 658px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32696" class=" wp-image-32696" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Little-Girl-Johannesburg-by-Sonny-300x240.jpg" alt="Little Girl, Johannesburg (Photo by Sonny)" width="648" height="518" />Little Girl, Johannesburg (Photo by Sonny)</div>
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_32695" style="width: 660px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32695" class=" wp-image-32695" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Speakers-Corner-Cape-Town-by-Sonny-300x200.jpg" alt="Speakers Corner, Cape Town (Photo by Sonny)" width="650" height="433" />Speakers Corner, Cape Town (Photo by Sonny)</div>
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Spray It Out – Graffiti To Protect Animals

Jonathan Liebmann is 29, owns 25 buildings and has lived on five of the seven continents. Now, he has made his nest in a small corner on the east side of the most vibrant city in Africa—Johannesburg.
Johannesburg city was established in 1886, as a farm where gold miners from all over the globe came to make their money. That is where it got the name Egoli—meaning place of gold. In decades to follow, it became the shopping mecca of Gauteng’s elite. Today, all the big banks and businesses have relocated to the northern suburbs and the new tenants are mostly African immigrants looking for a place to make a living; the streets are busy, there are shops at every turn and a multitude of languages in the CBD.
There is a sign that hangs between two buildings on his street, it reads Maboneng— meaning place of lights in Sesotho. It’s a fitting description for a beacon in the middle of a city plagued by crime, dilapidated buildings and grim life. Just down the road, there’s a men’s hostel where even the police are afraid to go.
Liebmann is rejuvenating the east’s run down image one building at a time. The corner coffee shops, restaurants, independent movie house and boutique hotel are abuzz as you walk the streets of Maboneng Precinct.
He has just bought his 25th building, which he will convert into apartments. We stand on the roof of the new building looking down onto another flat roof. Two recycling vendors are having lunch on a two plate stove, they are surrounded by recycled bags containing plastic bottles. This is one of the many facets of Johannesburg hustle.
You could say the streets behind Liebmann are a playground for his entrepreneurial mind.
<div id="attachment_1283" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1283" class="size-medium wp-image-1283" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/380-380_1-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Property developer Jonathan Liebmann, Johannesburg; 19 July 2012 &#8211; Photo by Brett Eloff.</div>
Liebmann’s entrepreneurial spirit is as young as many of the buildings are old. He made his first profit at 18, at a time when most people hadn’t even thought about buying their first car, let alone buy one. He had bought, renovated and resold an apartment and at 21 he turned an old factory into an office for rent.
“When I was 18, I realized I wanted to be involved in property. I went to university but while I was [there] I started investing in property on a small level. I bought my first apartment that I renovated, with the bank’s money, and then I just worked my way up from there… I enjoy being the pioneer and taking the first steps, so for me that risk was an attraction. And at the same time I was completing my accounting degree so I was working and studying as well,” says Liebmann.
Liebmann bought his own apartment at 20, after a year of nomadic life across the world, traveling and doing odd jobs from construction to telesales consulting. Traveling is something he learnt from a young age, as a child Liebmann moved almost ten times with his divorced single mother and older brother.
“I started thinking about how I could do my own large developments of [loft culture] and started looking for old factory spaces that would have the right type of aesthetic to do that and that’s when I found my first buildings in Maboneng.”
“I traveled all around the world after school and that exposed me to a lot to urban culture,” he says.
And since his return to Johannesburg—the city of his birth—he wants to inject new life into the city; artists, business and residents are following him.
While on his travels, Liebmann went from being a construction worker to a telesales person, skills he would later use in his chosen career.
You can tell from the moment you meet Liebmann that he’s driven. He’s sharp and has an air of confidence that could be interpreted as arrogance when he speaks about his work. He’s got that ‘I know what I want and I know how I’m going to get it’ tone as he tucks his brown hair beneath his ears throughout the interview.
Earlier this year, Liebmann was invited to the World Economic Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“I was selected as a global shaper along with 30 other young people from Africa. I learnt about the common objectives of African countries to collaborate with one another in an attempt for Africa to become the next frontier,” says Liebmann.
While we sit at a corner coffee shop, a number of people greet him as they pass by. Liebmann and his vision are growing in stature in this area of decaying factories and empty buildings, which is a living manifestation of the saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.
Not only has it managed to attract people and money back into the city but it has also put his family back together.
His mother owns a coffee shop, his father owns a gallery and his step-brother works here too.
It’s a risky investment.
One minute one area could be the trendy spot where the masses flock and in a number of years may degenerate and experience flight.
His architect, Enrico Daffonchio says property goes in cycles in every city of the globe.
“There is a spectrum of different perspective [on its potential], however the spectrum of opinion from the cynics is reducing… Cities get renewed throughout history, it’s not a new thing. There are tax incentives to refurbish those areas. [So] there’s tax incentives and governments copy each other ,” says Daffonchio.
How did Liebmann get people to Maboneng and does he think they will stay?
“I think initially the challenge was changing people’s perceptions of the city. Yes, it’s a continuing struggle but it’s far easier as we grow block by block… I think Johannesburg is at the beginning of its curve of regeneration. There’s a long way to go [but] it’s certainly showing promise… You’ve got to build spaces that attract people back…”
Property economist and University of Capet Town lecturer, François Viruly says it’s not the government’s duty to upkeep the city.
“The role of government is primarily to ensure that an environment is created that encourages private sector investment in the CBD&#8230; I don’t think that there is anything wrong with the private sector owning buildings in the CBD. Urban decay is a problem that local governments have faced across the world. In South Africa, the decentralization of commercial space has invariably left CBDs with high vacancy rates.”
These are vacancy rates which Liebmann is grabbing with both hands—a dream he is creating one building at a time.

Tag: Maboneng

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Designs For Africa, And Michelle Obama

Boom! Come Out Fighting

Spray It Out – Graffiti To Protect Animals

One Man’s Trash Another Man’s Treasure