South Africa’s richest city suspended by the JSE

The City of Johannesburg has had trading in its bonds suspended by the JSE, as the municipality has failed to publish its audited financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2025. 

This was revealed by the JSE late on Friday, 27 March, with the suspension being confirmed by the City of Johannesburg in a statement on Sunday, 29 March. 

“The JSE refers to the announcement released on 2 February 2026 and wishes to advise that the abovementioned issuer has failed to comply with the JSE’s Debt and Specialist Securities Listings Requirements,” the exchange said. 

It explained that the City of Johannesburg has failed to publish its audited annual financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2025 within the prescribed period. 

“Accordingly, the listing of the issuer’s debt securities and the registration of the issuer’s placing document have been suspended with immediate effect,” the JSE said. 

Typically, such a notice indicates significant financial trouble for the issuer, in this case, the City of Johannesburg, and indicates that it is having trouble finalising its financial statements. 

This may indicate that the city cannot account for some of its assets, expenditures, or could be in poor financial health. 

The City of Johannesburg issued a clarification via social media late on Sunday to explain what the suspension means for the city and its residents. 

“The suspension is due to the timing of publishing annual financial statements, as required by JSE listing rules,” the city said. 

“The city is currently finalising its audit with the Auditor-General of South Africa, including resolving technical accounting matters through a standard dispute resolution process.” 

The city explained that this is a technical issue that does not indicate it is in financial distress or cannot pay back its debts. 

It also said that its service delivery is not affected by the suspension, with it being able to fund its operations through revenue collection. 

While the bonds cannot be traded on the JSE, they remain valid and in place, the city said. 

“The City has a strong track record, having redeemed R9.9 billion in bonds (COJ01–COJ07 and COJG01). Only R1.44 billion (COJ08) remains, scheduled for redemption on 22 June 2026,” it said. 

“This process is about ensuring accuracy, compliance, and transparency in audited financial statements – not financial instability.”

The City expects to finalise its financial statements by 31 May 2026, after which the suspension should be lifted, and normal bond trading will resume.

Financial trouble

The suspension of trading in the City of Johannesburg’s bonds on the JSE comes after it was revealed that the municipality is facing a serious revenue crunch. 

Households, businesses, and government entities owe the city a combined R71.9 billion in rates, taxes, and levies.

This is almost enough to fund another entire budget for the city, with its annual budget of R90 billion being passed by the council before the end of March. 

 The budget notably slashed the city’s spending on key utilities, despite declining service delivery. City Power’s spending has been cut by R767 million, Joburg Water’s by R575 million, and Pikitup’s by R98.5 million.

This is partly due to the inability of these entities to collect sufficient revenue, with nonpayment and service interruptions negatively impacting sales.

Data from The Outlier shows that by December 2025, residents, businesses, and state entities owed the City of Johannesburg R71.9 billion in unpaid bills. 

Worryingly, over 70% of this is more than a year old, indicating that this revenue may never be recovered at all, regardless of any intervention from the municipality. 

The city is also failing to meet its own collection targets. It billed R37.2 billion between July and December 2025, but only collected R31.9 billion for rates, water, electricity, and refuse removal.

To address the crisis, the city launched a fourth debt relief phase in November 2025, offering a 50% write-off to homeowners with properties valued below R2.5 million and businesses with turnover under R3 million, provided they repay the remaining 50%.

But past programmes offer little encouragement. Three previous phases recovered just over R500 million combined, less than 1% of the current debt. 

In December 2025, disconnection drives for electricity and water recovered only R140 million against R4.5 billion in identified arrears, casting doubt on whether this latest effort will succeed.

An increasing concern for the city, financially, is the rise in service delivery failures in both the electricity and water sectors.

The breakdown of outstanding debt owed to the City of Johannesburg at the end of 2025 can be seen in the graph below, courtesy of The Outlier.