Gauteng budgets deadlock could finish off already crumbling municipalities

In February 2026, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi publicly conceded that the government had failed to turn around the struggling Emfuleni Local Municipality.

He fell short of saying that the ANC had unashamedly failed Emfuleni and its residents, who have endured years of neglect under its watch. This is while the Democratic Alliance (DA) has long highlighted the issues faced by the financially embattled municipality.

Emfuleni is not the only problem. There are municipalities like Merafong City Local Municipality, where the National Treasury has confirmed that it will withhold equitable share grants due to the municipality in December, as well as March next year, to push the municipality to settle its massive R1.4-billion debt owed to Rand Water. This intervention would not have occurred without the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) sustained pressure.

Political stalemates

At the heart of many of these challenges are repeated delays and failures to adopt budgets due to political deadlocks within municipal councils.

Tshwane missed its deadline due to instability in coalition governance, while the Emfuleni Local Municipality failed to pass the adjustment budget – the council aims to vote on the budget in the next sitting. Mogale City and West Rand municipalities failed to pass their adjustment budgets due to the EFF’s withdrawal from the coalition and assertion that it would not support ANC budgets in Gauteng municipalities, risking the collapse of service delivery.

While this is not an isolated occurrence, it has the potential to create wider instability and serious consequences across other municipalities in Gauteng. It is worth noting that the City of Johannesburg’s adjustment budget was withdrawn. This situation could bring service delivery to a complete standstill. Typically, adjustment budgets are due by the end of February.

Precarious finances

Our municipalities find themselves in a precarious financial situation. According to the Consolidated General Report on Local Government Audit Outcomes for the 2023/24 financial year, the Auditor-General (AG) has shown that many municipalities in Gauteng are under serious financial pressure.

Five (45%) of Gauteng municipalities indicate going concern uncertainty, illustrating that almost half of Gauteng’s municipalities are struggling financially and may have difficulty continuing to operate normally in the future if conditions do not improve.

In terms of unfunded budgets and unauthorised expenditure, nine (82%) of Gauteng municipalities adopted unfunded budgets. This means R120.6-billion in expenditure was unfunded, proving that financial discipline in our municipalities is weak. In other words, municipalities spent money that the council had not provided for in the approved budget, or that the spending did not meet the conditions of a particular grant. Only the City of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Midvaal had funded budgets.

Subsequently, Gauteng municipalities incurred unauthorised expenditure amounting to R8.4-billion, the highest in the country for the 2023/24 financial year. Last year, eight municipalities approved unfunded budgets, which worsened their financial situation and contributed to total unauthorised expenditure amounting to R4.35-billion.

Failure to adopt funded budgets has resulted in the doubling of unauthorised expenditure by Gauteng municipalities.

Having unfunded budgets at the local municipal level has become common practice over the years. Municipalities must budget effectively, plan carefully how they will use their limited funds to operate and deliver services and then manage their operations and deliver on their planned service delivery targets within the approved budget.

Substandard service delivery

Meanwhile, Gauteng residents continue to face substandard service delivery or none, because the political leadership of these municipalities lacks the expertise and political will to ensure that yearly budgets are adequately funded.

Failure to adopt a sustainable budget that directly addresses basic services can have a devastating impact on residents. In his budget speech to Parliament, Minister Enoch Godongwana emphasised that local government was the sphere where communities experienced the state most directly. Yet many municipalities are in financial and operational distress and therefore unable to deliver services as they should.

It is high time that Gauteng Premier Lesufi and his MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Jacob Mamabolo, get their act together and ensure that municipalities, particularly the local and district municipalities in this province, start providing the services our residents deserve and pay for.

This includes urgently addressing unfunded budgets, overspending, poor revenue management, financial losses and inadequate financial controls.

Yes, this can be done. The solution lies in assisting municipalities that fail to provide funded budgets and regularly incur unauthorised, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure, year after year. DM

Solly Msimanga MPL is Gauteng Leader of the Official Opposition.