Daily Maverick's Premier Event returns for 2026!
Going for Broke:
Cities Edition
Cape Town
International Convention Centre
Friday,
11 September
2026
Cities don't fail all at once.
On 4 November, South Africans will vote in local government elections that will help determine the future of our cities. Before the campaign slogans, before the promises and before the ballots are cast, we have just one question:
Can South African cities be fixed? Not in theory. In practice.
One broken streetlight, one abandoned building, one wrong contract signed in a backroom. Nobody notices – until everybody feels it. And increasingly, that's where South Africa's future is being decided.
National politics may dominate the headlines, but cities are where residents experience government every day. They're where infrastructure either works or doesn't. Where investment arrives or leaves. Where public spaces thrive or decay. Where opportunity is created, or lost.
That's why The Gathering 2026 is going local.
What is the Gathering ?
The Gathering is Daily Maverick's annual premier event, where South Africa's boldest thinkers and leaders come together to tackle the country's most urgent challenges and explore ideas that could shape the future.
Watch the round-up video from last year's event
Meet the speakers
AG Tsakani Maluleke
Auditor-General, AGSA
Jillian Green
Editor-in-Chief, Daily Maverick
Denise van Huyssteen
CEO, NMB Business Chamber
James Delaney
Contemporary Artist
Helen Zille
DA Johannesburg Mayoral Candidate
Herman Mashaba
President, ActionSA
Prof. Edgar Pieterse
Director, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town
Geordin Hill-Lewis
Democratic Alliance Leader; Mayor of Cape Town
Full schedule
Welcome
Rebecca Davis, senior journalist, Daily Maverick
Opening address
Jillian Green, editor-in-chief, Daily Maverick
The good, the bad, the ugly & the surprising
Everything that went right, wrong and sideways in local government. You will laugh. You will cry.
Presented by Dan Corder, award-winning political comedian & news commentator
Are our metros really f*****cked?
Finding the answer to the question we've all been asking.
Moderator: Lindsey Schutters, journalist,
Business Maverick
Panellists: Tsakani Maluleka, Auditor-General,
AGSA, and Songezo Zibi, chairperson,
Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts
Leaky cities, polluted waterways
Follow the sewage. From the burst pipe and creaky infrastructure, down to the ocean you swim in. Then find out what we need to do to protect this resource.
Moderator: Pieter-Louis Myburgh, investigative
journalist, Daily Maverick
Panellists: Sean Phillips, director-general,
Department of Water and Sanitation; Ferrial Adam,
executive director, WaterCAN; Neil Macleod,
specialist water & sanitation consultant; and
Gregg Oelofse, coastal & environmental
manager, Spatial Planning and Environment, City of Cape Town
Crime by numbers
Everyone has a theory about crime in their suburb, but almost nobody has the data. We unpack the numbers, from murders to housebreakings.
Presented by Lizette Lancaster, head of the Justice & Violence Prevention Programme, Institute for Security Studies
Crime the Beloved Country
Organised crime isn't loitering outside the gate. It has a desk inside, and it's on the payroll. And when they end up in prison is it business as usual or is there hope?
Moderator: Caryn Dolley, author & crime
journalist, Daily Maverick
Panellists: Andy Mothibi, National Director of
Public Prosecutions, NPA; Lizette Lancaster,
head of the Justice & Violence Prevention Programme,
Institute for Security Studies; Judge Edwin
Cameron, author, judge & member of the Botswana
Court of Appeal; and Rebecca Gore, author
& advocate of the high court
How to spot the fake election messaging
Presented by Kyle Findlay, co-founder, Murmur Intelligence
The Ripple Effect
Jillian Green, editor-in-chief, Daily Maverick, in conversation with Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder and chair of Gift of the Givers.
In loving memory of Estelle Ellis
Friends with Benefits
Should business be helping to fix cities and invest in them? Is there a return on the investment or is it a bottomless pothole?
Moderator: Stephen Grootes, associate editor,
Daily Maverick
Panellists: Denise van Huyssteen, CEO, NMB
Business Chamber; Ozzy Nel, CEO, SA Harvest
The Story of the Wilds
Contemporary artist James Delaney turned The Wilds from a crime-ridden, forgotten patch of Houghton into one of Joburg's busiest parks – proof of what one determined citizen can do where the City won't.
Presented by James Delaney
Power to the People
Somewhere between the ward meeting and the abandoned building residents figured out that they are the answer to the questions. Now, community platforms are reclaiming inner-city blocks and holding municipalities to their own promises.
Moderators: Ferial Haffajee, associate
editor, Daily Maverick, and Malibongwe Tyilo,
creative lead, Maverick Studios
Panellists: Bea Swanepoel, Group CEO, Jozi my
Jozi; Yunus Chamda, coordinator, Joburg
Crisis Alliance; Asad Gaffar, chairperson,
eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement; &
Tim Harris, co-founder & chairperson,
Mission for Inner City Cape Town
Point of Order
Ten minutes with Marianne Thamm, associate editor, Daily Maverick.
Our cities aren't broken, they're built wrong
Presented by Edgar Pieterse, director, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town
Campaigning is easy. Governing isn't.
Coalitions, collapse and the politics of delivery, 10 weeks before the ballot. Bringing governance, political leadership and action to cities. Why thriving cities are intrinsically tied to South Africa's survival.
Moderator: Mondli Makhanya, columnist &
editor-at-large, Daily Maverick
Panellists: Helen Zille, DA Johannesburg
mayoral candidate; Herman Mashaba, president,
ActionSA; Susan Booysen, emeritus professor,
Wits University, political analyst & author
Closing Address
Contact: Nicole Williamson — nicole@dailymaverick.co.za