Johannesburg’s residents deserve a City that fights for them, pursues their best interests, and spends their resources diligently and sustainably. The annual balances related to irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditures, much of it tied to reckless litigation which have consistently increased over the last few years. There is no reliable governance structure to determine which matters should be litigated in the first place. With an average annual legal bill for contracted services of around R240 million over the previous two financial years, the City’s legal expenses are expected to far exceed R1 billion just for this political term.
The Auditor-General has been clear: pursuing litigation without reasonable prospect of success is fruitless and wasteful expenditure. It is money spent in vain, money that could have been avoided had reasonable care been exercised. Yet, Johannesburg continues to pour scarce resources into legal battles that do not serve its interests.
This is not just a line item in an audit report. It is a betrayal of public trust.
Every rand spent in courtrooms, without the prospect of success, is a critical resource squandered from fixing potholes, restoring power, cleaning streets, and keeping our communities safe. Citizens do not measure governance by the number of cases filed in court – they measure it by whether water flows, lights stay on, and refuse is collected.
This pattern of waste is symptomatic of weak risk management, poor accountability, and misplaced priorities. It tells residents that the City is willing to gamble with their future while service delivery collapses.
We can no longer afford this betrayal of trust.
To prevent legal costs from spiralling, the Democratic Alliance (DA) demands that the City must implement professional, measurable, and transparent decision-making systems, including:
• KPI’s in legal departments
• Group Legal Services to play a pivotal and centralised role in budgeting, risk management, and cost-containment on all legal matters within the City.
• Disclose all pending legal claims and contingent liabilities monthly.
• A mandatory external third-party legal opinion process on high-risk cases that can easily turn into a money pit, to decide on what cases should be adopted on independent legal merit rather than political interest.
• Redirect funds from legal fees into urgent service delivery projects that restore dignity to our communities.
This ensures that the City only pursue litigation that is legally defensible, financially prudent and in the public interest.
Johannesburg is at a crossroads. Either we continue down the path of waste and mistrust, or we choose proper legal governance and oversight allowing for a redirection of resources to fixing the services people rely on every day.
The people of this City are watching – they will not forgive those who squander their future in courts while their streets remain dark and broken.