City of Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero has moved to reassure residents following recent correspondence from Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana regarding municipal financial management.

Morero said the correspondence was received by his office last week, after which he engaged directly with the minister to discuss the contents of the letter and the issues raised.

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He said both parties had agreed to convene a formal engagement between the City of Johannesburg and the Ministry of Finance to address and clarify the matters outlined.

“The City acknowledges the critical oversight and governance role of the Ministry of Finance in engaging municipalities on matters of financial sustainability, governance, and accountability,” Morero said.

He added that the city remained fully committed to cooperating with the ministry and would provide all required information in line with established practice between

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• Our metros are the economic hubs of our country and it is completely unacceptable that most cannot get basic financial management right.
• Challenges faced by municipalities are driven by a lack of financial management skills and vacancies – there simply aren’t enough qualified people working in local government to ensure the accounts are done properly.
• The state of financial management tracks with the level of basic service delivery – Johannesburg, which most of our biggest companies call home, has been in a state of gradual decline for many years.

The financial state of our municipalities is shocking and a serious constraint on economic growth.

Only one of the eight metros gets a clean audit – Cape Town – with Buffalo City, Tshwane, Mangaung and Nelson Mandela Bay getting qualified audits indicating material failures in the accounts.

Johannesburg, eThekwini and Ekurhuleni received unqualified audits but with findings, indicating

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The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality has delivered a R65 billion no frills budget, with an improved credit rating and outlook, radically increased spending on maintenance as well as plans to get hostels and informal settlements to pay for the service they receive.

“From the outset, we seek to present a realistic budget outlook that can be practically implemented and monitored, taking into consideration the current state of our city’s environment,” finance MMC Jongizizwe Dlabathi said as he delivered the budget and the Medium-Term Revenue and Expenditure Framework.

Dlabathi noted that the budget spelt out how priorities announced by Executive Mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza in this State of the City Address almost two months ago would be funded.

Ahead of the delivery of the budget speech, Xhakaza who recently survived a motion of no confidence, took to the podium to announce that the budget, the first under his multi-party coalition

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