‘The number is unavailable’ — Telkom cuts City of Joburg landlines over unpaid bills

Telkom has suspended landline services to the City of Johannesburg over unpaid municipal accounts — crippling official communications, raising fresh alarm over the metro’s financial stability, and leaving millions of residents dangerously vulnerable during municipal and emergency callouts.

The landline service suspension was confirmed on Wednesday by the Democratic Alliance’s Johannesburg caucus leader, Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku, in an internal municipal memo circulated to city councillors, and by numerous city officials who reported the matter to residents.

The only response anyone phoning the 011407 city department numbers on Wednesday received was: “The number is not available.”

The City did not reply to a request for comment from Daily Maverick as to what contingency plans are in place for members of the public who need landline access.

“This is an absolute disgrace and yet another indication of the City’s deepening financial crisis,” said Kayser-Echeozonjoku. “The fact that state-issued phones are offline because the City cannot pay its service providers is unacceptable. Residents expect a functioning administration, not one where basic communication systems fail.”

Kayser-Echeozonjoku pointed directly to executive spending priorities as the root cause of the cash crunch, contrasting unpaid utility bills with ongoing labour commitments.

“At the same time, the mayor continues to encourage Samwu’s [SA Municipal Workers Union’s] demands around the politically facilitated agreement (PFA), despite repeated warnings that the City simply cannot afford these commitments,” she said. “Instead of prioritising sound financial management and protecting essential services, the ANC-led administration continues to make reckless decisions that further undermine the City’s ability to deliver.”

The DA confirmed it has written directly to the city manager demanding clarity on the default and asking what contingency plans were in place.

The extent of the shutdown was confirmed in an internal communication sent to councillors by a media and communications officer, who informed officials that all state-issued lines had gone dead:

“Kindly note all state phones are currently offline. GCSS is currently working to resolve the matter... Can we, in the interim, be patient and make use of our personal phones, so we have no loss of important information.”

The reference to GCSS (Group Corporate and Shared Services) — the municipal entity tasked with managing the city’s IT, telecommunications and administrative infrastructure — confirms that the metro’s central switchboard network is entirely non-operational. Municipal staff and public representatives have been forced into using their personal mobile devices to maintain daily operations. Councillors are provided with a cellphone allowance.

How the cutoff affects Johannesburg residents

The sudden disconnection of Telkom fixed-line services creates major operational blind spots for residents trying to reach municipal departments:

• Call centre breakdown: Primary contact channels, including the central 0860 Joburg line and specialised billing inquiry desks, are experiencing total call failures.
• Depot and service hub isolation: Walk-in centres, customer service hubs, and regional utility depots for Joburg Water and City Power are unable to receive incoming calls regarding localised bursts, outages or fault escalations.
• Emergency routing risks: While primary emergency dispatch networks operate on separate channels, secondary desks, regional Johannesburg Metro Police Department stations, and local municipal fire switchboards relying on landlines face severe communication delays.
• Revenue and billing interruption: Residents attempting to reach revenue services to arrange debt settlements, issue clearance certificates or resolve billing disputes cannot contact municipal officials via fixed lines.

Background

• The Telkom cutoff comes weeks after the sheriff of the high court attached municipal computers and office furniture at Thuso House — the city’s primary customer service centre in Braamfontein — based on non-payment of rent. The execution forced the temporary closure of the walk-in facility until the City made a late emergency payment of more than R3.4-million to settle the outstanding debt.
• Compounding these operational disruptions is the politically facilitated agreement (PFA) — a multibillion-rand labour deal covering historical wage adjustments. Opposition leaders and National Treasury have repeatedly warned that funding these wage commitments squeezes basic operational funds, leaving critical suppliers, IT and telecom accounts unpaid.
• The metro has faced ongoing operational threats over defaulted accounts with recurring legal threats and potential supply cutoffs over multibillion-rand arrears owed to Eskom by City Power;
• Major suppliers across Gauteng have increasingly shifted away from debt negotiations toward hard service suspensions when municipal accounts fall past 60 to 90 days in default.

Telkom did not reply to a request for comment. DM