New research into the crisis afflicting the City of Johannesburg warns that the widening structural imbalance between the metro’s operating expenditure and capital expenditure (capex) poses a threat to long-term service delivery.
Produced by Genesis Analytics, and presented recently to Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) by Lael Bethlehem, the analysis shows that, in real terms, the city’s operating expenditure had grown by 92.5% since 2010, while capital investment had contracted by 12.8%.
Capex as a share of total spending had fallen from about 17% in 2010 to about 7% in 2025, on the back of budgets that have been heavily skewed towards operating expenditure, especially expenditure on personnel.
The City of Johannesburg passed a R97.1-billion budget for the 2026/27 financial year on May 28, amid deepening concerns over outstanding debt and salary adjustments that were flagged as unsustainable.
The latter issue was also raised by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in his well-publicised April 23 letter to Mayor Dada Morero, in which Godongwana warned that the National Treasury might halt the transfer of funds to the city because of its noncompliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act.
