Finance Minister Issues Warning to Joburg Mayor Over R22bn Irregular and Wasteful Expenditure

Source: City of Joburg. City of Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana recently brought to light the mayor's R22bn unauthorised, irregular and wasteful expenditure for the 2023/24 financial year.

In a letter to the mayor, Minister Godongwana said if he did not see an improvement in the management of the city's finances, National Treasury would stop its conditional grant funding - a move the Democratic Alliance in Johannesburg has warned would collapse the city, with residents suffering the most.

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has since discussed the matter with Morero.

At a media briefing on Sunday, 3 August 2025 Lusufi said a presidential team had been assigned to assist in addressing the matter. He said the report highlighting the poor management of Johannesburg's finances was the last in a series of reports received by Godongwana, and that steps to improve the situation have long been implemented.

"The executive mayor is very clear, with the bomb squad he has established and the presidential team that has been assigned to assist us here, all these issues that are identified are issues they have moved on them. They have attended to them," he said.

"It's just that the letter came on the basis that what they are seeing is the last report they have received, but inbetween this period the letter was written and what they have done as a municipality, there has been meaningful progress."