Joburg's mayor said Johannesburg's financial obligations will be settled in July
Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero on 8 July 2026. Picture: Supplied/City of Johannesburg
Johannesburg’s leaders have assured residents that the city’s financial position will not prompt a widespread service delivery collapse.
Mayor Dada Morero on Wednesday led a large panel featuring most of his mayoral committee where they outlined the position of the municipality.
Morero said funds were available to pay essential debts, while his deputy and finance MMC Loyiso Masuku attempted to shift blame onto previous administrations.
R1.4 billion to be paid to Eskom
National Treasury on Tuesday announced that Johannesburg was one of 69 municipalities that would not be receiving its equitable share grant this month – valued at almost R4 billion.
Sporadic municipal service delays and disruptions have left residents frustrated, and fearful that the financial issues could cause cascading service delivery failures.
A multi-billion debt owed to Eskom prompted an intervention by Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramakgopa in May, with Morero confident the next debt payment would be met.
“We will be paying Eskom R1.4 billion as soon we receive the cash, which will then set us free from the debt process that we have agreed with Eskom,” said Morero.
“We are convinced that by mid-July, all these payments will be effected.”
He explained that the municipality did not have a problem with bulk water supplier Rand Water, but that the entity would receive roughly R960 million this month.
Morero said the municipality had made strides in addressing irregular and wasteful expenditure as the city had regularised R1.8 billion through the city’s municipal public accounts committee, with a further R6.4 billion currently before entity boards for consideration.
“This is comforting feedback as it confirms that our financial management is okay and has not reached a crisis state.
However, more needs to be done to manage our cash flow and revenue performance,” Morero said.
Problems began ‘from 2016’
Masuku said a council meeting later in July would further address the city’s issues, but laid the blame at the feet of previous administrations.
The ANC’s recently-elected regional leader said, “from 2016, the challenges of the City of Johannesburg started”, and that this administration was still dealing with the fallout.
“We were trying to resolve a problem and challenges that had emanated from the different sets of governments that have taken before us,” said Masuku.
Former mayor Herman Mashaba dismissed the accusations, suggesting the ANC and his former party, the DA, were equally to blame.
“What we are witnessing today did not happen overnight. This financial crisis is one I refer to as a predictable outcome of years of neglect, characterised by politics of self-interest taking precedence over basic governance competencies.
“The ANC must take responsibility for Johannesburg’s current condition. Years of poor financial management, deteriorating oversight, cadre deployment, and the erosion of administrative capacity have left many municipalities across South Africa struggling to meet even their most basic obligations.
“The DA cannot simply present itself as an innocent bystander while ignoring the role it played in contributing to Johannesburg’s political instability.
“Stable governments are built through consistency, principled leadership and a commitment to institutional continuity. When coalition governments become disposable instruments of political strategy, governance inevitably suffers,” Mashaba stated on Wednesday.
‘My dustbin had also not been collected’
Morero also addressed the Pikitup backlog that has left rotting trash lining the streets across the city’s suburbs.
“I know that when I left [home], my dustbin had also not been collected, but the process has started to deal with the backlog.
“It has been a cash flow issue in terms of allocation to entities. It has now been resolved on the basis of the strength of the cash flow within the city, and the entities have received what is due to them so that the operations can resume,” said the mayor.
Explaining the R3.2 million debt fiasco involving the city’s customer service centre Thuso House, he said the issues stemmed from a two-year administrative delay.
“The city manager will have to deal basically with consequence management which we confirmed in our meeting yesterday,” said Morero.
In terms of positives, Morero highlighted Moody’s review of the municipality’s credit rating and the R3.8 billion loan secured from the German Development Bank.
However, Morero explained negotiations with Treasury were ongoing, and urged Treasury to be more lenient with its recovery methods.
“Some of these requirements that they’ve placed, does not help the cities to advance and in the discussions we have had, they have understood that we may have to relax some of the requirements,” stated Morero.
