Water NGOs call for national intervention amid deepening financial crisis for the City of Gold

By Johnathan Paoli

The City of Johannesburg’s worsening financial crisis has reached a point where the national government must intervene to prevent further economic and service delivery collapse, civil society organisations have warned, arguing that the metro can no longer be relied upon to rescue or run itself.

The call comes after Johannesburg’s council spent much of its final sitting of the 2025/26 municipal financial year rushing through National Treasury-required documents in an effort to safeguard billions of rand in national funding, while continuing to grapple with a R2.1 billion unfunded budget gap, mounting debt, deteriorating infrastructure and a controversial R10.3 billion wage agreement.

The Joburg Crisis Alliance, WaterCAN and JoburgCAN said the administrative measures adopted by the council failed to address the city’s deeper structural failures.

“Without national intervention this city, which contributes 16% to the country’s nominal GDP, will continue to deteriorate and erode the value it creates