South Africa’s biggest city does not have a single road, sanitation, or refuse technician

The City of Johannesburg does not employ a single full-time road or sanitation professional, despite its headcount rising to 40,176 employees. 

South Africa’s economic hub also does not report having a single road, sanitation, or refuse technician. 

All the while, the city plans to expand the number of senior management posts at the municipality by over 200% to 1,025. 

This was revealed in the city’s draft budget for the 2026/27 financial year, which outlined how many people the municipality employs and what they do. 

The budget itself has come under severe criticism. Critics say the budget is unfunded as it relies on unrealistic revenue projections. 

Johannesburg has faced significant challenges in recent years in collecting revenue for services delivered, with unpaid municipal bills rising to R71.9 billion at the end of 2025. 

The city’s latest budget sets itself a revenue collection target of 91%, despite its collection rates plunging to 86% in the last financial year. Collection rates are as low at 40% in parts of the city. 

To fund its growing expenditure, the city is not only reliant on unrealistic revenue collection but also on significant tariff increases. 

Water and sanitation tariffs are set to rise by 11%, and electricity tariffs by an average of around 9%, to cover the city’s operations. 

In particular, the city has found the Water Demand Levy to be a lucrative avenue for revenue generation, with it being retained despite objections. This levy will rise by 65.6% in the coming financial year. 

Despite these lofty revenue collection goals and tariff increases, the city still finds itself in extremely poor financial health. 

The Johannesburg Crisis Alliance pointed out that the city’s cash coverage has collapsed froma bout 48 days in 2020/21 to just 15 days. 

This means the city is at increasing risk of defaulting on payments to key suppliers such as Eskom and Rand Water. 

The city has yet to table its financial turnaround plan, as it was withdrawn prior to the budget vote. This is despite it being demanded by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. 

Senior managers are raking in the cash

The one point of consistency across the city’s recent budgets is the fact that salaries absorb 30% of Joburg’s annual budget. This equates to around R30 billion. 

This is despite residents getting little in the form of efficient service delivery, with sporadic water and electricity outages across the city. It is also despite a R220 billion infrastructure backlog. 

More alarming than the sheer size of the city’s workforce and how much it costs is how it is broken down, with the municipality’s hierarchy being extremely top-heavy. 

The City of Johannesburg is set to grow its headcount to 34,520 permanent staff members and 3,959 contracted workers in the next financial year. 

This will grow further to 40,707 total positions in 2027/28, with 36,568 permanent staff complemented by 4,139 contracted employees. 

Of this total, the majority are in administrative or management positions. The city, despite being the largest in South Africa, only employs 7,252 professionals. 

In contrast to the growth in overall headcount, this number will fall to 6,860 in the coming financial year before recovering slightly to 7,118 in 2027/28. 

Within the professionals employed by the city, those focused on road infrastructure are set to fall to zero in the following two financial years from 1,055 in 2025/26. 

The city currently has no refuse collection professionals, with it planning to hire 80 in the coming financial year. 

There is also expected to be a sharp drop in water technicians, which will halve in the next year, and electricity technicians. 

All roads, sanitation, and refuse technicians are expected to drop to zero after the 2025/26 financial year. 

This means that South Africa’s biggest city will not employ a single technician in these sectors, with it also having no road infrastructure professionals. 

All the while, the city’s draft budget focuses on expanding the number of senior management roles across its various entities. 

The number of senior management roles will rise from 330 to 1,025 in the coming financial year.