South Africa: Joburg, Treasury Agree On Plans to Save City's Finances Ahead of Parliamentary Deadline

By Anna Cox

National Treasury says the plan to get Joburg's finances back on track 'is solid, providing a credible foundation for the City's financial recovery'.

The City of Johannesburg hosted Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on Tuesday, 21 July, for high-stakes emergency talks in a desperate bid to unlock its withheld equitable share grant, as the metro faces a severe liquidity shortfall with barely two weeks of cash reserves remaining.

The meeting concluded with an agreement on practical interventions to strengthen the City's financial position and accelerate service delivery. According to a joint media statement issued by the mayor's office and National Treasury on Tuesday, both parties agreed to a set of immediate stabilisation steps, with Treasury reaffirming that the "Joburg Plan" provides a credible foundation for the metro's financial recovery.

The City did not respond by the time of publication to requests for a specific clarification of the interventions.

Tuesday's meeting follows a similar high-level engagement between Godongwana and Morero held this year in May, when Treasury first formally raised statutory concerns regarding the metro's unfunded adjustment budget, growing debt and non-compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act.

Morero, alongside members of the mayoral committee and senior officials, presented what the City described as an honest assessment of its progress, ongoing challenges, and work under way through the Inner City Rejuvenation programme and infrastructure...

Read the full story on Daily Maverick.

Copyright © 2026 Daily Maverick. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.