The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg strongly condemns the Public Safety Department’s massive overspending, which has directly contributed to the collapse of by-law enforcement across the City.
According to the latest MPAC report, Public Safety incurred R514,252,417.06 in unauthorised expenditure during the 2023/2024 to 2024/2025 financial years, more than half a billion rand lost through poor financial discipline.
This level of mismanagement has left JMPD claiming it has no vehicles, no staff, and no capacity to enforce City by-laws. This is happening while communities are facing increased illegal dumping, vagrancy, land invasions, public drinking, crime hotspots, and general lawlessness.
The report also highlights fruitless and wasteful expenditure within Public Safety, including improper salary payments that have now been recommended for recovery and referred for disciplinary action. The DA welcomes these recoveries as an essential step toward accountability.
The consequences are felt daily: by-law offenders act without fear of consequences, JMPD visibility has collapsed, and communities are left without the basic enforcement they rely on to stay safe.
This money, and money that is overspent when necessitated, should rather be disbursed on safety issues and community initiatives instead of what the money was squandered on.
The DA condemns this waste, welcomes the recoveries, and stands ready to govern Public Safety with clean, ethical, and professional leadership that restores JMPD capacity, enforces by-laws consistently, and puts residents first.
We will be interrogating what the fruitless expenditure was wasted on to ensure that there is transparency.
The DA believes in Joburg and we are ready to restore order, accountability, and enforcement.