DA mayoral candidate Helen Zille is pushing for Joburg to be placed under National Treasury financial administration, while the ANC wants a meeting with the minister to protect a two-year R10.3bn staff pay deal.
On 23 April, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana wrote to the Mayor of Johannesburg, Dada Morero, saying that the city could not afford its recent salary increase.
What should I follow WhatsApp | Linkedin for latest headlines
There is one at issue R10.3 billion, two-year salary deal The city signed a deal with the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) in November 2025 to prevent protests ahead of the G20 meeting in Johannesburg. Workers say it resolves outstanding wages and benefits they have been waiting for for years.
But according to the Finance Minister, this has come at the expense of services as well as current and desperately needed capital investment in infrastructure, and has brought the city closer to bankruptcy.
Godongwana's letter made clear that the city is, in any case, effectively bankrupt: creditors are owed R25.2 billion, while the city has R3.9 billion in cash and equivalents. It suffered a loss of R12.9 billion due to unauthorized expenditure in 2023/24 (the latest official report), while the debt-to-revenue ratio increased by 29% in 2024/25, indicating an increasing reliance on debt to maintain its operations.
Godongwana instructed Morero to stop the “illegally signed agreement” and warned that it threatened both…