Overview
- The Auditor‑General reported more than R3.69 billion in irregular expenditure, R2.38 billion in unauthorised expenditure and R943 million in fruitless and wasteful spending in Johannesburg’s 2024/25 consolidated accounts.
- The CoJ group wrote off about R9.5 billion of debtors, of which roughly R9 billion were consumer debts that the city could not recover, sharply reducing cash available for operations and repairs.
- City Power recorded electricity losses of about 30% (around R5.7 billion) driven in part by theft and meter tampering, and Johannesburg Water logged water losses near 45% (about R2.8 billion), both eroding revenue streams.
- Capital and maintenance spending were well below norms, with capex at roughly 9% of the budget and maintenance around 4%, which auditors say deepens the infrastructure backlog and weakens service delivery.
- Parliamentary auditors and Scopa warned that repeated 'amber' findings for key entities, delayed investigations and weak consequence management mean Treasury engagement has not yet produced material improvement and service risks will persist unless governance stabilises.