Let us hope that Johannesburg, eventually, will enjoy the same renaissance. It will need to because this remains the commercial capital of southern Africa and the greatest disincentive for visiting executives is personal insecurity. Despite this unflattering picture many whites still live a cloistered existence. In the northern suburb of Rosebank it is as if there has been a competition to build the highest security wall. Those around the plushest properties are topped with electrified fences.
Uniformed guards stand on the pavements listening to walkie-talkies.
Large dogs snarl as you walk past over-size gates through which there are glimpses of swimming pools, tennis courts and weedless lawns. Families who would be lucky to live in a semi in Slough, are tended by several servants. Colonial Africa is a hardy species, though the whinging from the privileged has grown louder. The question of race remains a dominant theme here and the reality is the future is black. Unemployment is rising The brutal imprint of apartheid, with its absurd obsessions with racial separation, is still visible in the way communities are divided up, not just here but across South Africa.