South Africa’s richest city crumbling in plain sight because of poor maintenance and mismanagement

Large parts of Johannesburg’s infrastructure need to be rebuilt from scratch, as it was initially designed to last 25 years and has not been adequately maintained. 

The country’s economic hub has suffered from decaying road infrastructure, sporadic water outages, and prolonged power cuts due to its ageing distribution network. 

Furthermore, its current budget for routine maintenance is inadequate and will not be able to solve years of neglect. 

This is feedback from Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) CEO Zweli Nyathi, who described the agency’s budget as a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed to maintain the city’s road infrastructure. 

The agency has only been allocated R2.8 billion over the next three years to maintain and upgrade Johannesburg’s road infrastructure, with the backlog alone running into the billions. 

This translates to only R930 million per financial year, and over 70% has already been allocated to the desperately needed rehabilitation of existing infrastructure. 

Nyathi said the department expects to spend over R152 million on repairs to bridges across the city, R139 million on stormwater upgrades, and R60 million on traffic lights.

Earlier this year, the JRA stated that it would require over R70 million to repair existing broken traffic lights and replace those that had been stolen. 

Some traffic lights are completely vandalised, with no infrastructure left behind by criminal elements. These sites have to be rebuilt entirely. 

It is estimated that at any given moment, over 400 traffic lights are not functioning across the city, and during extreme weather, this number can rise to 600. 

This does not include the resurfacing and repair of the roads themselves, which includes a significant portion of fixing potholes, or the upgrading of gravel roads in certain parts of the city. 

“It is not a lot, but we can start somewhere. We really need a serious amount of cash to address ageing infrastructure that has reached the end of its lifespan,” Nyathi told Newzroom Afrika. 

A symptom of deeper problems

Nyathi explained that the crisis currently affecting Johannesburg’s road infrastructure is only a symptom of deeper issues that have persisted for years in the city. 

This includes inadequate budgets for maintenance, disputes between city authorities and the provincial government, and a lack of skills. 

“Let me be honest, we have just below 100 engineers for all of Johannesburg’s road infrastructure, which is not enough,” Nyathi said. 

A significant issue for the city is the age of its infrastructure. Inadequate maintenance has necessitated the complete rebuilding of large parts, as they cannot be saved in their current form. 

“We need to take into account that we are dealing with a city that is over one hundred years old, and much of its infrastructure was designed to last for only 25 years,” Nyathi said. 

“Some of these things were designed to be rebuilt from scratch and were never replaced, resulting in them steadily deteriorating.” 

“Again, one of the issues is that maintenance is very important, and when you only have a budget to roll out infrastructure, it catches up with you in the long run.” 

Nyathi explained that this results in a significant maintenance backlog, which cannot be made up quickly or forces the city to spend billions more to replace infrastructure completely. 

The City of Johannesburg estimates that it needs approximately R200 billion to repair its deteriorating infrastructure. 

It needs around R26 billion to halt the collapse of its water infrastructure alone and requires billions more to upgrade the system to cope with its growing population. 

Joburg Water, a municipal-owned entity, currently spends approximately R1.2 billion on its water infrastructure. This will have to be ramped up significantly.

The city estimates that it needs R221 billion to address its maintenance backlog and deliver overdue infrastructure upgrades. 

“We are exploring ways to raise funds off the balance sheet by seeking private investors or other market solutions to help bridge the gap,” Mayor Dada Morero said.

The main question surrounding this plan is where the money will come from, as the city and national government’s finances are severely constrained. 

South Africa’s richest province, Gauteng, is also unable to offer much help as it is facing a liquidity crisis, according to Finance MEC Lebogang Maile. 

Maile issued this warning when he presented the province’s Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) Budget in March. 

Gauteng is expected to spend R527.2 billion over the next three years to deliver on existing services and revive the provincial economy. 

However, despite this huge budget, Maile warned that the province is under severe financial pressure and proposed implementing compulsory baseline reductions across all departments. 

“Liquidity pressures are escalating, with net cash balances projected to turn negative by the 2025/26 financial year,” Maile said.

The MEC called on all departments to adhere to the spending constraints and align their expenditures with the 2024-2029 Medium-Term Development Plan.