Ward councillors react to the budget

Ward councillors throughout the Roodepoort region expressed their disappointment with the City of Johannesburg budget, announced on May 28 by the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Finance, Margaret Arnolds.

The steady decline in service delivery in Roodepoort – and the whole of Johannesburg – has been a major concern for residents for years, with every municipal entity looking to be in a near-constant state of crisis, especially over the past two years.

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Amid constant power outages, water outages and leaks, pothole-littered roads, sewage spills, faulty street and traffic lights, rising crime, illegal dumping, and the steady overall deterioration of neighbourhoods, the elected ward councillors most often find themselves at the receiving end of the ire of fed-up residents – and they seem to be fighting a losing battle.

According to Ward 85 councillor Zoné Huges, whose area includes Little Falls, Strubens Valley, Kloofendal, parts of Helderkruin, Wilro Park, Horison, and Upper Discovery, the city’s 2025 budget does not address any of the pressing problems in her ward.

“I’ve worked tirelessly to push for upgrades to the water infrastructure in lower Helderkruin, Little Falls and Strubens Valley, and the electricity infrastructure throughout the entire ward, not to mention the roads.

“Instead, we get an upgrade of the Kloofendal Nature Reserve, an upgrade of the Little Falls Park, and continuation of upgrades at the Pro Musica Theatre.

“The City has, in my view, decided that service delivery-related upgrades in the ward are unimportant.”

Her sentiments are echoed by Ward 89 councillor Zander Shawe, who laments the fact that there is not enough focus on water and electricity infrastructure investment.

Shawe’s areas include parts of Fairland and Northcliff, Constantia Kloof, Weltevreden Park, Noordekrans, and Allen’s Nek.

“In addition, the budget is also over reliant on loans, ultimately transferring more burden onto ratepayers to carry the financial cost of the mismanagement of the City.”

The councillor for Ward 84, Johannes Goosen, who counts under his areas parts of Horison and Horizon View, Reefhaven, Roodepoort West, Roodepoort CBD, Georginia, Creswell Park, Hamberg, Lower Discovery, and Selwyn, says the budget reflects a disconnect between high-level planning and ward-level realities.

“There has been no notable increase in funding to address Johannesburg Roads Agency backlogs in Ward 84, despite the worsening condition of our road network.

“While the City speaks of rebuilding and service delivery, it continues to under-resource the very departments tasked with making that happen.

“The result is visible in every pothole and degraded road surface left unattended – symbols of a municipality that continues to overpromise and underdeliver.”

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Ward 97 councillor Jacques Hoon, who runs Wilgeheuwel, Wilgespruit, Radiokop, Honeydew Ridge, Harveston, Willowbrook, Ruimsig, Willowbrooke, Amorosa, and Poortview, didn’t mince his words, saying the 2025 budget is not so much a spreadsheet as it is a political manifesto.

“The brutal truth lay hidden in the MMC’s carefully chosen words,” he says. “Our residents are paying above-inflation increases for water, electricity, refuse, and property rates, while having to watch their infrastructure falling apart in front of their eyes.

“Our roads have been excluded from resurfacing, there is no provision for stormwater upgrades, and entire suburbs have been left off the City’s Capex pipeline while Regions A and G received multimillion-rand road and stormwater investments.

“There is also zero provision for public open space revitalisation.”

Where does the money go?

Hoon bemoans excessive wastage, adding that the mayor’s office employs 218 political staffers, including advisors, protocol officers, speech writers, political liaisons, and media teams, costing residents millions this year alone.

“Each MMC operates a private political office, complete with personal assistants, communications staff, and support teams – not to run service delivery but to manage narratives and build patronage networks.

“The speaker and chief whip have dedicated offices, legal teams, and strategists – all publicly funded, none accountable to us.

“Hidden in ‘special projects’ budgets are contract-based political appointments often connected to party structures, seldom advertised, and insulated from public oversight.

“The average political appointee in the mayor’s office earns R62 000 per month – that’s R13.5m per month in political salaries while our roads crumble and the reservoirs run dry.”

Entities

According to Hoon, every municipal entity – City Power, Joburg Water, Pikitup – is governed by a board of directors handpicked through political processes.

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“Board members are paid between R3 000 and R10 000 per meeting, with chairpersons earning up to R20 000.

“Many are sitting on multiple committees across multiple entities, stacking up public money with no delivery-based performance requirements.

“These boards cost tens of millions annually while the entities they govern preside over non-stop outages, filthy streets, failing refuse collection, and burst water mains.

“These aren’t oversight structures. They are retirement jobs for the politically connected – funded entirely by our escalating service charges.”

More charges, debt, and political overheads

According to Hoon, the City has reached a tipping point.

“This is no longer ‘managed decline’. This is systemic failure. The City borrowed another R7.3b to stay afloat, while R42b in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditures from previous years remained unaddressed.

“Johannesburg households are now paying billions per month in combined rates and service charges, and somehow, the City is still broke.

“Basic maintenance is being deferred. Capex is shrinking. Political appointments are growing. And communities like ours are left to patch pavements and fix parks.”