Johannesburg is bleeding cash, and Mayor Dada Morero is pointing fingers squarely at the Gauteng provincial government.The city is owed a staggering R5.2 billion, Morero told reporters on Wednesday.
Provincial departments – mainly Health and Education – have racked up R1.2 billion in unpaid municipal accounts. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Another R4 billion is tied to “unfunded mandates” – services the province is supposed to handle but Joburg has ended up paying for.The province did cough up R200 million in June, but Morero isn’t impressed.
“It’s the money we want,” he said flatly. He’s even suggested that National Treasury should step in and withhold the province’s own equitable share to force payment.This comes as Joburg is already scrambling. National Treasury held back R3.6 billion of the city’s own allocation over governance concerns – though Morero insists that’s now been resolved and the money should land by mid-July.But the city’s cash position remains shaky.
Morero put it at about 12 days’ worth – around R2.8 billion – far below the 32-day cushion Treasury recommends. “We are sitting at about R2.8bn, which gives you about 12 days,” he said. “What we are doing now… is to ensure that, from time to time, we comply with at least the 32 days’ cash coverage.”On the reform front, Joburg is ring-fencing its entities.
Johannesburg Water switched to a 70/30 revenue split on 1 July – keeping 70% of what it collects and handing 30% to the city. City Power follows in September, then Pikitup. Morero says this will let them invest more in ageing infrastructure.Not everyone’s convinced. Business Leadership South Africa’s Busi Mavuso has called the city’s mismanagement a “considerable constraint” on the whole economy, warning that broken infrastructure won’t fix itself.
The bigger picture? Joburg’s combined infrastructure backlog has ballooned past R220 billion. And with Eskom also owed over R5.2 billion, the risk of further service disruptions isn’t going away anytime soon.
