MK Party Johannesburg mayoral candidate Bongani Baloyi has called for stricter financial discipline, improved revenue collection and better management of municipal entities, saying the city must stabilise its finances to improve service delivery.
Baloyi was speaking during the second debate of Independent Online’s (IOL) four-day Town Hall Debates, running from October 19 to 22, which brought together mayoral candidates from large metropolitan municipalities.
The Johannesburg debate focused on the city’s financial challenges, including irregular expenditure, weak accountability, deteriorating infrastructure and poor revenue collection.
Johannesburg faces persistent water and electricity outages, crime, corruption, hijacked buildings, expanding informal settlements, malfunctioning traffic lights and streetlights, water losses and poor sanitation.
Baloyi calls for fiscal discipline
Baloyi said stabilising the city’s finances was essential to improving residents’ livelihoods, particularly amid unemployment and rising living costs.
He said the municipality needed to consider residents’ ability to afford services and its capacity to collect revenue, particularly from water and electricity customers.
“There has to be a change of attitude towards how we manage the limited resources of the city, and how we implement a stricter level of fiscal austerity measures to ensure that we don’t spend on non-important or non-service-related projects,” he said.
Baloyi also called for better management of municipal entities, suggesting that some could be reintegrated into their respective city departments.
However, he said entities capable of raising bonds and loans to recapitalise infrastructure should remain independent where they demonstrated sound financial performance.
He highlighted water losses of more than 40%, arguing that the city was losing revenue through infrastructure failures before services reached consumers.
Baloyi also called for aggressive revenue recovery in the Johannesburg central business district (CBD), where he said more than 500 buildings posed a challenge for the city because of unpaid municipal accounts.
“We need to deal with those and clean up our CBD,” he said.
He further proposed introducing social tariffs and transforming townships into electricity generation zones through microgrids, reducing their reliance on Eskom and City Power.
Billions in irregular expenditure
The debate comes amid concerns about Johannesburg’s financial management.
According to the Auditor-General of South Africa, the city recorded an unqualified audit opinion with findings for the 11th consecutive year in the 2024/25 financial year.
It recorded R3.69 billion in irregular expenditure, R2.38 billion in unauthorised expenditure and R943 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
The figures were presented during a parliamentary briefing on June 2.
The Auditor-General’s Gauteng business unit leader, Phumulani Rabonda, warned that nearly 80% of the city’s municipal entities had remained in the amber category for several years, raising concerns about the reliability of assurances provided by those entities.
The findings have intensified scrutiny of procurement, internal controls, revenue collection and infrastructure spending.
Morero defends financial turnaround strategy
Incumbent ANC mayor Dada Morero defended the city’s financial management, saying Johannesburg had adopted a financial turnaround strategy acknowledged by institutions outside the municipality, including National Treasury.
Morero rejected claims that the city spent an excessive proportion of its budget on employee costs.
He said Johannesburg had approximately 39,000 employees, with employee costs, including unemployment insurance and medical aid contributions, accounting for about 20% of the budget.
The city had also allocated approximately R8.9 billion to capital expenditure for the financial year, while its maintenance budget had increased in 2026 and 2027, he said.
Morero acknowledged that corruption remained a challenge, particularly where municipal employees colluded with contractors.
“There are instances, which we cannot deny, where some of our employees are committed to colluding with contractors who are also engaged in corrupt activities,” he said.
Cases were being investigated, with some referred to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
Morero said the city was working to increase its revenue collection rate to 90%, although unemployment and business closures had affected some residents’ ability to pay municipal accounts.
BOSA proposes increased infrastructure spending
Build One South Africa (BOSA) mayoral candidate Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster said corruption, mismanagement and weak leadership had contributed to Johannesburg’s financial and infrastructure problems.
She said the city had historically spent about 10% of its revenue on infrastructure and proposed increasing this to between 20% and 25%.
Hlazo-Webster also questioned the need for Johannesburg’s 13 municipal entities, arguing that duplicated responsibilities and bureaucracy undermined planning and financial efficiency.
She said the city needed to identify the causes of irregular and wasteful expenditure and redirect funds towards infrastructure and service delivery.
ActionSA calls for skills audits
ActionSA representative Botsang Moiloa proposed conducting a skills audit of municipal finance personnel to establish whether they were qualified to manage public funds.
He also called for risk and audit committees to report directly to the mayor and mayoral committee, providing regular updates on the city’s finances.
Moiloa said revenue from water and electricity services should be directed towards infrastructure priorities, including replacing pipes, repairing leaks and expanding electricity infrastructure.
He further called for reduced reliance on external service providers and improved internal capacity.
EFF prioritises transparency and relief
EFF mayoral candidate Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng said transparency was essential to preventing corruption in procurement and supply chain management.
She called for stronger accountability for contractors delivering poor-quality infrastructure and cited the refurbishment of Joubert Park, where she said the central water feature worked for only a few weeks.
Mofokeng also advocated financial relief for working-class residents, including teachers, police officers, ambulance drivers and nurses struggling with the cost of living.
She said the city’s budgets should prioritise neglected communities and address inequalities between Johannesburg’s sub-regions.
Rise Mzansi targets procurement delays
Rise Mzansi mayoral candidate Lukhona Mnguni said weak financial controls and poor accountability had created opportunities for corruption.
He proposed recording the deliberations of procurement evaluation and adjudication committees and using technology to improve transparency.
Mnguni said some procurement processes took up to 18 months, delaying service delivery.
He also raised concerns about property valuations and billing, arguing that some residents were being charged amounts that did not accurately reflect their properties’ market values.
With Johannesburg facing an estimated R220 billion infrastructure backlog, Mnguni said the city could not borrow its way out of the crisis.
He proposed exploring an infrastructure investment fund involving the city, private equity and residents.
Gaza Democratic Front and IFP call for better management
Gaza Democratic Front mayoral candidate Wisani Mathebula said municipalities needed to prioritise service delivery and eliminate corruption, maladministration and unnecessary bureaucracy.
He argued that excessive personnel spending could undermine a municipality’s ability to fulfil its service delivery mandate. He also called for streamlined administrative processes to speed up the provision of basic services.
IFP mayoral candidate Mlungisi Mabaso said Johannesburg needed to strengthen its revenue base and reduce its dependence on grants and loans.
He called for improved billing systems, a digital account system and better infrastructure maintenance to prevent major customers from switching to alternative electricity sources.
Mabaso also stressed the importance of employing competent financial personnel and ensuring that customers who had paid their accounts were reconnected appropriately.
simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za
IOL Politics