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Johannesburg is among 69 municipalities placed under corrective measures by National Treasury aimed at protecting public funds and forcing councils to fix their financial management.
The City of Johannesburg has defended its financial status after National Treasury withheld its July equitable share allocation as part of a crackdown on municipalities plagued by persistent financial failures.
Despite the sanction, Mayor Dada Morero insists the city is not in financial crisis.
Johannesburg is among 69 municipalities placed under corrective measures by National Treasury aimed at protecting public funds and forcing councils to fix their financial management.
Morero said National Treasury has confirmed Johannesburg’s 2026/27 budget is fully funded and has assured residents the city will receive its equitable share by mid-July.
“As we speak, we have received correspondence from the National Treasury that confirmed that our City’s 2026-2027 budget or annual budget is fully funded,” Morero said.
“This is comforting feedback as it confirms that our financial management is okay and has not reached a crisis point. However, more needs to be done to manage our cash flow and revenue performance.”
Meanwhile, Morero said the city has now met all of National Treasury’s requirements and expects to receive its R3.6 billion equitable share allocation by mid-July.
The mayor said the money will be used to settle outstanding debts owed to Rand Water and Eskom.
“Based on the fact that we have given all the necessary compliance and by Friday we should give all outstanding compliance issues, they have then made a commitment that by mid-July we should be able to receive our equitable share, which will be destined directly to paying Eskom and Rand Water.”
Morero also outlined the city’s plan to clean up its troubled finances. He said council has approved the regularisation of R918 million in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Morero says municipal entities have regularised a further R878.3 million, bringing the total value of expenditure dealt with to about R1.8 billion.
A further R6.4 billion is still under review, with some of the historical expenditure expected to be written off where appropriate.
He added that the city will now ringfence monies for entities like Joburg Water, to fund their infrastructure requirements.
Read the full article written by Dimakatso Leshoro on the EWN here.