Johannesburg spent less than half its capital budget as roads crumbled and suburbs were left in the dark

As infrastructure continues to deteriorate in the City of Johannesburg (COJ), its financial management has once again come under scrutiny.

The COJ reportedly spent just 49% of its R8.43 billion capital expenditure budget during the 2025/26 financial year, well below its 70% budget expenditure target.

This was revealed during a recent meeting between the COJ and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), which took place on 9 June 2026.

Johannesburg Executive Mayor Dada Morero told SCOPA that the city had also incurred cumulative water and electricity losses of over R10 billion in the last year.

The meeting came just a few days after the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) appeared before SCOPA to discuss the city’s audit outcomes for 2024/25.

The AGSA issued a qualified audit opinion on the COJ’s finances, deeming its budget as unfunded and flagging billions of rands in irregular or unauthorised expenditure.

Alongside this, the AGSA found that the city had achieved only 40% of its service delivery targets for that year and 36% of its infrastructure development and refurbishment targets.

In an interview with SABC News, SCOPA Chairperson Songezo Zibi described Johannesburg’s financial state as “concerning”.

“There is not enough expenditure on maintenance, not enough expenditure on infrastructure, and a deteriorating collection rate,” Zibi said.

“This means what the city budgets to spend is often not realised in the revenue, which creates a shortfall. In between this are all of the governance problems that you see.”

Zibi said the existence of Johannesburg’s 13 separate entities created unnecessary complexity in service delivery and that these should be centralised.

He also argued that there was a severe issue around the qualifications of those in charge of these entities, and said Mayor Morero had even agreed with him on this point.

“Often they don’t have the wherewithal to oversee and guide those agencies,” Zibi said. “Sometimes they don’t have any professional qualifications at all.”

“In the majority of cases, you would find that they can’t even read financial statements. Yet they are supposed to oversee commercial entities, which simply does not work at all.”

The City of Johannesburg responds

Following its meeting with SCOPA, the COJ released a statement in which it acknowledged the concerns raised and committed itself to resolving these issues.

The city accepted the flags raised by the AGSA, and said it would introduce a turnaround strategy aimed at addressing the root causes of its financial woes.

“The administration acknowledged concerns regarding infrastructure deterioration, maintenance backlogs, and utility losses,” the COJ said.

“We confirmed that infrastructure renewal and service reliability remain central priorities of the recovery programme. Restoring confidence will require measurable results, not just commitment.”

Some of the reforms promised by the COJ include stricter expenditure control, improved revenue collection, and reducing water and electricity losses, among others.

While the city’s current administration reaffirmed its commitment to restoring infrastructure and improving service delivery, it did not fully take accountability for the COJ’s current state.

During the meeting with SCOPA, Morero defended his decision to proceed with a R10.3 billion wage deal with the South African Municipal Workers’ Union, despite warnings from National Treasury that the city’s funding would be cut as a result.

Additionally, Morero said ActionSA president and former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba was to blame for many of the city’s problems.

Morero said the COJ’s administrative difficulties could be attributed to the frequent corruption allegations made by Mashaba against others, which Morero said were baseless.

“The drop you are seeing today in terms of revenue collection was as a result of the employees throughout the value chain deciding not to do anything anymore,” Morero said.

“Because anything they did, they were accused of corruption by Mashaba. In fact, Mashaba created weak leadership throughout the city.”

ActionSA MP Alan Beesley questioned Morero on the appointment of the African Independent Congress’s Margaret Arnolds as the COJ’s Finance MMC, despite warnings from Mashaba over her lack of experience.

In response, Morero admitted that many city officials were appointed based on political reasons rather than their expertise in the field to which they were appointed.

Morero said the COJ had been confident in Arnolds’ ability to perform well in the position, shortly before pointing out that Mashaba himself only holds a Matric.