Corporations and cities under distress: Organised business and ‘emergency’ governance in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa

This article considers private sector embroilment in urban governance under disaster/crisis conditions in cities of the developing world, paying particular attention to the role of law in structuring urban governance regimes. Through a case study detailing the changing relationship dynamics between organised business and the South African metropolitan municipality of Nelson Mandela Bay during a confluence of the Covid-19 pandemic and a debilitating drought, the article shows that crisis conditions can induce moments of civic solidarity between urban local governments and their non-state stakeholders, which might be leveraged to produce progressive ‘everyday’ urban governance arrangements. However, the incomplete consolidation of such an arrangement in Nelson Mandela Bay leads the article to consider the adequacy of the South African legal framework for urban governance, thereby highlighting how urban law may enable, stabilise and ensure accountability for ‘emergency’ urban governance.