Joburg is being squeezed on all sides by unpaid bills — among them the state itself. As the city confronts repaying its own debt, municipal reports reveal which government departments and state-owned entities account for the biggest share of R1.44bn owed for water, electricity, refuse and rates.
These delinquents span provincial, national governments, and state-owned enterprises. They are now being ordered to pay: by finance minister Enoch Godongwana and minister of co-operative affairs Velenkosini Hlabisa. This follows the National Treasury temporarily withholding equitable share grants from 69 municipalities, including Joburg, for incurring billions in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure (UIFWE), which the Treasury said was not in compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act.
Since the 2021/2022 financial year, municipalities have incurred a total of R24.12bn in fruitless and wasteful expenditure, irregular expenditure of R145.21bn (R40.14bn in 2024/2025 alone) and R118.13bn in unauthorised expenditure, of which R63.43bn (54%) was on noncash budget items.
In the 2024/2025 financial year, 116 municipalities (45%) adopted unfunded budgets — up from 113 (44%) in the previous year’s adjusted budget. By the end of that financial year, municipalities owed interest of R3.4bn to Eskom and R1.21bn to water boards.
The City of Joburg and its municipal entities have written off R45.16bn in UIFWE over the past five years.
While all the grants have now been paid over, the Treasury said it is keeping a close watch on these municipalities.
As at the end of June 2026, national and provincial government institutions collectively held more than 6,300 municipal service accounts with the City of Joburg. The total outstanding balance across all municipal services amounted to about R1.44bn, comprising water, refuse and rates.
Joburg Water carries the bulk of outstanding accounts, with more than R700m owed to the entity. Worse still, more than half of this is over 91 days overdue.
The biggest culprit is the department of education, which owes Joburg Water R325m and City Power more than R70m.
At the end of March this year, Joburg Water’s outstanding government and parastatal clients owed:
- Department of health: R136m
- Department of infrastructure development: R115m
- Department of human settlements: R56m
- Department of correctional services: R37m
- Department of public works: R16m
- Department of justice: R1.2m
- South African National Defence Force: R928,589
- Department of transport: R352,219
- Department of co-operative governance: R187,954
- Department of finance: R35,771
- Eskom: R54m
- Transnet: R45m
- Prasa: R40m
- Telkom: R2.3m
- Sanral: R828,519
- South African Post Office: R122,731
- SABC: R26,777
- Other entities (not named): R2.7m
At City Power, national department and parastatal debt stands at R273.1m. The department of health owes the most, with R112.5m outstanding. The department of housing owes R31.1m and the department of infrastructure development owes R20.1m. The rest are the department of public works (R19.9m), the departments of justice and correctional services (R10.2m), the department of defence (R7.6m), the department of finance (R2.1m) and the department of transport (R1m).
“While City Power remains committed to supporting these institutions through continued investment in reliable electricity infrastructure and collaborative engagement, it is equally important that all government customers honour their payment obligations. Sustainable revenue remains fundamental to maintaining, upgrading and expanding Joburg’s electricity network, ensuring that essential public services continue to receive a reliable electricity supply,” says City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.
He says while City Power is concerned about the outstanding debt owed by government institutions, some of these accounts have been formally disputed because of billing queries raised by the departments. “The entity continues to work closely with these departments to resolve legitimate billing-related matters.”
During a government accounts indaba held in June, City Power’s acting CEO, Charles Tlouane, reiterated that government institutions have a responsibility to lead by example by honouring their payment obligations.
He said electricity service delivery depends on sustainable revenue and that all spheres of government must pay for the services they consume to enable municipalities to maintain and modernise critical infrastructure, invest in the electricity network and deliver reliable services to residents and businesses.
Mangena says: “Since City Power assumed full responsibility for the electricity billing function from the City of Joburg on July 1 2025, significant progress has been made in improving billing accuracy and resolving historical account queries. At the time of the transfer, there were about 8,000 outstanding billing queries across all customer categories. This number has since been reduced to below 2,000 through focused interventions. The remaining queries are monitored daily to ensure they are resolved as efficiently as possible.”
City Power’s biggest debt problem lies with residential, business and large power user clients. Mangena says this debt amounts to R13.3bn.
Joburg Water says that in collaboration with the City of Joburg’s Revenue Shared Services Centre it convenes quarterly debt management committee meetings with indebted government departments and the Gauteng provincial treasury to review outstanding debt, monitor payment commitments and address billing-related challenges.
Joburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala says: “Joburg Water conducts dedicated working sessions with the respective departments to undertake debt verification and reconciliation exercises, including account audits, meter verification and the resolution of billing disputes, ensuring that all outstanding balances are accurate, validated and recoverable.”
She says where payment defaults persist, matters are escalated through the appropriate internal structures to senior officials, executive authorities and the provincial treasury to facilitate intervention, promote accountability and secure the settlement of outstanding municipal debt.
“Where accounts remain in default despite these engagements and interventions, Joburg Water implements credit control measures in accordance with the approved credit control and debt collection policy, including the disconnection of water services where applicable.”
- This report is produced by Our City News, a non-profit newsroom serving the people of Joburg.
