South Africa: Jo'burg Ratepayers Get the Stick for City's Political Turmoil

14 June 2023
Scrolla (Johannesburg)
By Zukile Majova Political Editor

The political instability of the past 10 months in the City of Johannesburg has so far plunged the city into a R9.6 billion debt.

This was revealed by councillor Dada Morero, the MMC responsible for finance, when he tabled the city's R80.9 billion medium-term budget on Tuesday.

After outlining the bleak state of finances, Morero made it clear that ratepayers will cough up for the political instability caused by coalitions in the city.

He announced a property rates increase of 2%, a water tariff hike of 14.97%, electricity hike of 9.3%, sanitation increase of 9.3% and a 7% increase in refuse removal charges.

Morero is the man who should have been mayor but unresolved trust issues in the ANC and EFF coalitions means neither of the two parties can take over the mayor's chain.

They agreed to elect a "puppet mayor" like Kamelo Gwamanda of Al Jama-ah, a party with just two seats in the 270-seat council.

The city has been run by five different mayors in the past 10 months, with each regime accusing the previous one of looting and mismanaging the city's finances.

Morero, who did a one-month stint as mayor after an illegal removal of DA mayor Mpho Phalatse, compared the DA regime to lotto beneficiaries who blow their winnings quickly on nothing significant.

Their fall from grace is documented in a popular SA TV show called I Blew It.

He accused the DA regime of being poor in revenue collection, costing the city dearly with revenue falling from R6.6 billion in June 2021 to R3.8 billion by June 2022.

On Tuesday Morero presented an operational expenditure budget of R73.3 billion with just R7.6 billion set aside for capital expenditure projects.

"We need a minimum of R4.3 billion per month to fund the city's operations and deliver services so that we can survive as the people of Johannesburg," said Morero.

The clock is ticking for the divided council to approve the budget during a voting session on Wednesday.

Already ActionSA has proposed a motion of no confidence against the mayor and is campaigning for more opposition parties to unseat Gwamanda.

Pictured above: City of Johannesburg Finance MMC says the city is broke and battling to collect revenue

Picture source: CityofJoburgZA

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