While water infrastructure continues to collapse, the City of Joburg has slashed Joburg Water’s budget by R201 million for the 2025/2026 financial year. This means that Gauteng residents will continue to experience water outages, as the current budget is insufficient for all the maintenance work needed on the ageing water infrastructure.
According to a reply to a Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng question from the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Jacob Mamabolo, the budget was reduced across the city because both revenue and mid-year collections were below budgeted levels.
The operational budget, which is used to provide day-to-day services to the residents of Johannesburg, currently stands at R19.95 billion, while the capital budget, which is used to fund long-term infrastructure projects, is R1.7 billion for the 2025/2026 financial year.
The decrease in revenue collection is made worse by the fact that some government departments do not pay for the services they receive from municipalities. Earlier this year, the then MEC for Finance, Lebogang Maile, indicated that the Gauteng Provincial Department owes municipalities R2 billion.
The DA Gauteng has already submitted questions to all MECs to determine exactly how much money each department owes to municipalities.
A DA-led provincial government in Gauteng would immediately ensure that outstanding monies owed by GPG departments to municipalities are paid. Gauteng residents deserve a government committed to providing uninterrupted basic services.