Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero has indicated that he is confident that the city's response to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will clear up any concerns the minister raised recently .
Image: Itumeleng English / Independent Newspapers
There have been mixed reaction to the DA’s calls for the City of Johannesburg to be placed under administration after the state of its finances was flagged by the National Treasury.
Last week, it emerged that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana had written Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero, to warn about severe financial distress that indicated that the city does not have the liquidity required to pay its creditors.
Godongwana warned about the continued violations of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and failure to prevent and address unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
He said that he has observed series violations of various legislative and regulatory compliance requirements under the MFMA that suggest deterioration in the city's governance and overall financial health.
According to Godongwana, the outstanding amount owed to creditors has increased from R17 billion in 2022/23 to R25.2bn in 2024/25 while the city's cash and cash equivalent of R3.9bn in 2024/25 was insufficient to repay outstanding creditors of R25.2bn.
DA federal chairperson and leader of the official opposition in the Gauteng provincial legislature Solly Msimanga has demanded that President Cyril Ramaphosa place the city is placed under financial administration.
He vowed that the DA in the province will continue to pressure Ramaphosa to intervene to ensure that the city is placed under financial administration.
ActionSA has rejected the DA’s demand that the municipality be placed under financial administration, saying that on the surface this may sound decisive in a moment of fiscal crisis but that sound governance is not about dramatic interventions.
The party’s Johannesburg caucus leader Councillor Marcel Coutriers said financial administration, particularly in such a complex metro, risks becoming an exercise in political theatre rather than a meaningful pathway to recovery.
“While we acknowledge the current financial distress – warnings about cash-flow problems, compliance failures under the MFMA, and deteriorating service delivery have been well documented, the leap from acknowledging failure to demanding administration deserves closer scrutiny,” he said.
Coutriers added that Johannesburg did not need another layer of governance but honest leadership that confronts failure, rather than outsourcing it.
“Administration offers distance from responsibility, not delivery. It may stabilise spreadsheets, but it rarely fixes streets, restores electricity reliability, or rebuilds pay-for-service trust with residents. The city’s crisis is serious,” he said.
ActionSA believes Johannesburg will not be rescued by suspending governance but will be rescued by reforming it and that the municipality needs a change of leadership, not gimmicks.
Freedom Front Plus (FF+) councillor Franco de Lange said placing the city under administration could be pointless at this stage just before the end of the term.
“We currently have an ANC administration at the provincial level but then again we have ANC government of local unity at local level. So if this (being placed under administration) happens, the ANC at provincial level takes over the ANC at local level. If that’s going to work and it’s a workable plan, we must wait and see,” he said.
Godongwana and Morero met on Friday and it was agreed that the mayor and his officials will go back and consider some serious remedial actions that will address the issues that the minister has raised and submit a formal report to the National Treasury in response to the letter sent last month.
On Tuesday, Morero said he was finalising an official response with the administration, which will be sent through to Godongwana, clarifying all the issues in writing.
He said at the meeting, 'the city gave a proper background to an extent that Godongwana was able to understand... the meeting went very well and we believe that the municipality has cleared the issues that needed to be cleared'.