The Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng is calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene and ensure that the City of Johannesburg is placed under financial administration to save residents who have suffered enough from a lack of service delivery resulting from financial mismanagement and maladministration.
Since last year, the DA has been calling on the President to intervene and rescue the City of Johannesburg from a financial and management crisis. This call came after the President himself witnessed the deterioration of the city’s infrastructure and, thereafter, announced that a working group would be established to fix the problems within the City of Johannesburg. However, there is nothing to show for his interventions, as the city is broke and service delivery has collapsed.
The DA Gauteng’s open letter to the President and the Joburg Rescue Plan document have been ignored. Now the Minister for Finance, Enoch Godongwana, has written a letter to the Mayor of Joburg, Dada Morera, highlighting the same issues we warned the president about last year.
In the letter written by the DA Gauteng and the Joburg Rescue Plan here, we implored the President to put transparent oversight measures in place in all three legislative spheres to ensure that the interventions that were meant to be put in place by the Johannesburg Presidential Working groups are managed in accordance with proper corporate governance principles.
The National Minister of Finance states that the City of Johannesburg has seriously violated various legislative and regulatory compliance requirements under the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA). This indicates a deterioration in the city’s governance and overall financial health.
In our letter to the President, we outlined several steps to rescue the City of Johannesburg. This plan will ensure that residents receive the service delivery they deserve promptly.
The DA Gauteng will continue to pressure the President to intervene to ensure that the city is placed under financial administration. By doing so, the administrators will be able to do a proper assessment of the city’s finances. Furthermore, they will be able to identify gaps in the city’s financial plans and redirect funds needed for service delivery. If this is not done immediately, the residents in the City of Johannesburg will continue to experience a decline in service delivery in the province.
A DA-led provincial government would immediately intervene by placing the city under financial administration and ensuring that funds earmarked for service delivery are used properly.