The news that finance minister Enoch Godongwana has written to Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero, instructing him to come up with a plan to arrest irregular, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, comes as no surprise.
According to a report by Sowetan’s sister publication the Sunday Times, the minister warned Morero that such expenditure had spiralled out of control.
Godongwana reportedly told Morero that his metro had in the last financial year racked up R1.4bn in unauthorised expenditure, R22bn in irregular expenditure and R705m in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Godongwana said there was a trend showing that the municipality had failed to prevent such expenditure and that it had been allowed to go on despite warnings from the Auditor-General and the National Treasury.
This points to serious mismanagement of municipal finances by officials, which is enabled by politicians.
The sorry state of the city is visible for everyone to see. The increasing number of potholes, uncut grass, uncollected rubbish, dysfunctional lights, dry taps, and constant power cuts is the lived reality of many Joburg residents. The central business district has been allowed to deteriorate so much that it resembles a war zone.
Now we know that the dire situation is a result of the mismanagement of funds by those entrusted with spending our resources wisely.
A lack of leadership has characterised the city for years. Even the change of leadership after the 2016 local government elections, where the ANC lost its majority, didn’t deliver any change. Instead, it brought us political instability that has seen the city change mayors more frequently than necessary.
The ruling coalition led by the ANC may have brought some political stability, but it has clearly not resulted in improved functionality and service delivery.
In March, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that he had deployed the presidential working group to Johannesburg to help the metro strengthen its governance and financial sustainability, among other things.
But Godonwanga’s letter shows that four months later, Ramaphosa’s team hasn’t been able to help Morero get his house in order. Godongwana gave Morero 14 days to explain how he is going to get the city out of this mess.
If the intervention announced by Ramaphosa is not bearing fruit, the national government needs to take further steps to rescue the residents of Johannesburg from the incompetent suits running the metro.
It will then be up to the voters next year to decide which direction they want the city to take. For now, something must give. It can’t be business as usual.
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