Herman Mashaba's ActionSA raises alarm over City of Johannesburg's financial crisis.
Image: Phando Jikelo / Independent Newspapers
ActionSA has raised concern about the financial crisis facing the City of Johannesburg Municipality. The party claimed that the municipality has failed to improve its audit outcome for the third consecutive year and that some of its departments have regressed.
ActionSA said the Auditor-General’s annual report revealed that the city’s debt collection expenses have surged from R30 million to R423 million in the 2023/2024 financial year. The City of Johannesburg faces a R1.4 billion financial burden due to water losses.
ActionSA Municipal Public Accounts Committee Whip Lebo Modukanene said that the report indicated that the municipality's failure to adhere to procurement regulations has resulted in R4.9 billion being spent in Regulation 36 deviations, which is a sharp increase from R20 million. The electricity losses are also staggering, with R1.4 billion in technical losses and R3.4 billion in non-technical losses.
Modukanene said there is also a continued rise in allowance for debt impairment, which underscores the need for improved financial management practices.
The party said Johannesburg needs political and administrative leadership that prioritises service delivery over wasteful spending and corruption.
“We propose livestreaming of all MPAC meetings to ensure transparency and accountability in public finances,” said Modukanene.
ActionSA demands urgent corrective measures to address these challenges.
The Auditor-General released a report last month which stated that the City of Johannesburg failed to take reasonable steps to prevent irregular expenditure amounting to nearly R2 billion as well as R2.755 billion in unauthorised expenditure.
”The majority of the unauthorised expenditure was caused by overspending on key votes,” the report stated.
The municipality noted that the majority of the irregular expenditure comes from multi-year contracts, which have been previously declared irregular, including the R1.2bn Afrirent fleet deal.
IOL
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