Tshwane executive mayor Nasiphi Moya has hailed the progress in turning the capital city’s finances around, saying the multiparty coalition government’s efforts were yielding positive results.
Reporting on her administration’s first 100 days in office, Moya, who succeeded DA councillor Cilliers Brink as mayor in October 2024, said they inherited a city bogged down by an unfunded budget.
This meant there was insufficient income to cover expenses, including the provision of basic services and capital investments. The municipal debt stood at more than R11bn, with R6.76bn owned to Eskom alone, Moya said.
The auditor-general’s report for the 2023/24 financial year gave the city a qualified audit opinion as in the previous year. Tshwane incurred R2.3bn in irregular expenditure in 2023/24, up from R1.9bn in the previous financial year. Fruitless and wasteful expenditure was largely unchanged at R347m while unauthorised expenditure increased from R423m to R2.1bn.
The Tshwane metro recently fired 67 officials in a sweeping crackdown on disastrous governance, reflecting the broader decay plaguing local government across the country. The metro has completed 180 forensic investigations, which led to 129 disciplinary cases and 39 criminal referrals.
On Tuesday, Moya said when she took over there was chronic underinvestment in repairs and maintenance, which left the metro’s ageing infrastructure vulnerable to frequent breakdowns which led to weekly power and water outages.
Moya said the demand for capital investment over the next decade exceeded R65bn, “yet the city’s current annual capital budget is only R2.3bn. At this rate, it would take 36 years to meet the 10-year demand”.
In short, the city was in a state of neglect with dirty streets, failing infrastructure and disparities in service delivery between affluent areas and townships, or informal settlements.
Moya said the multiparty coalition had worked hard over the past 100 days to address challenges dogging Tshwane and restoring the metro’s financial stability had been top priority.
“Central to our financial recovery has been improving revenue collection. We set ourselves an ambitious target of collecting R4bn per month. While we have not yet reached this figure, we have consistently achieved an average monthly revenue collection of R3.3bn,” she said.
“This progress is particularly encouraging given that December and January are historically difficult months for revenue collection due to the financial pressures associated with the festive season.”
Revenue collection from November to January exceeded the same period in the previous year. “We have also surpassed forecast collections for the current financial year by over R500m to date. In real terms, this means that with each passing month, the city is becoming stronger in its ability to provide basic services to more residents.
“To ensure fairness and accuracy in our billing system, we have prioritised moving away from estimated billing to actual meter readings. Residents have a right to be billed on actual consumption, not estimates, and this shift is essential in building trust and ensuring that ratepayers are treated fairly.”
Managing the city’s debtor book also remained a priority, the mayor said, explaining that the major contributors to the debt book included residential (R15.8bn), indigent (R2.6bn), business (R6.75bn), government (R1.79bn) and inactive (R1.75bn).
Over the past three months, the metro issued 242,406 final notices for outstanding debt which generated R285m in cash. “We also effected 66,448 disconnections. We set a target of maintaining at least R50m in cash reserves per month. As of January 2025 our cash reserves stand at R368m,” Moya said.
Other priorities the municipalities focused on during the past 100 days included economic revitalisation, infrastructure development, equitable basic delivery and a clean city, bylaw enforcement and urban safety, and bringing the government closer to the people.
Moya said while progress had been made over the past 100 days, a lot still needed to be done. “The foundation we have laid will serve as a springboard for deeper, more sustained improvements in service delivery, infrastructure, financial stability and community engagement,” Moya said.
“In the coming weeks, we will table our first adjustment budget, which will provide another opportunity to refine our priorities and direct resources towards the areas that need urgent intervention.
“Beyond this, we are also working on the 2025/26 annual budget, where our clear objective is to present a fully funded budget that prioritises tangible service delivery.”
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