Ekurhuleni finance MMC Jongizizwe Dlabathi on Thursday tabled a budget of R65.5bn for 2025/26, more than R13bn of which was set aside for annual salary increases and job recruitment in energy, water, sanitation, environment and waste management, among other departments.
Dlabathi said the proposed revenue would be realised through an action plan including maximum revenue collection, improved management of outstanding debts, curtailing revenue leakages in metering and billing, and efficient credit control.
The metro, which received an unqualified audit opinion with findings for its 2023/24 fiscal year, will step up revenue enhancement “with a projection of an estimated additional R2.1bn gross revenue that will be ring-fenced during the 2025/26 financial year”, Dlabathi said.
Seven of the country’s eight metros — Cape Town being the exception — incurred a combined R941.9m in fruitless and wasteful expenditure during 2023/24.
Dlabathi said there would be no increases in property rates or municipal bus ticket prices. However, sanitation tariffs will rise by 10%, water 15%, refuse removal 6% and all other sundry tariffs will increase by 4.3%.
Ekurhuleni is a crucial industrial, manufacturing and logistics hub in Gauteng. OR Tambo International Airport, one of Africa’s largest airports, is situated in the municipality, which recorded a 36.9% unemployment rate in 2024.
The metro, which employs 21,447 workers, delivers services to 1.5-million households.
“Our total expenditure of R64.8bn will be subjected to the non-negotiable conditions [including] spending within the allocated budget, linking spending to the provision of essential services and goods, fostering economical procurement and the realisation of value for money,” Dlabathi said.
“We have increased the employees’ budget from R11.7bn to R13.4bn to provide for annual salary increments and the recruitment of additional workforce mainly for the trading services departments — energy, environment and waste management, water and sanitation.”
Dlabathi said the metro would recruit 700 permanent cleaners and 290 permanent metro police officers. “R303m will be allocated over the medium-term revenue and expenditure framework (MTREF) towards equipping the staff with essential tools of trade, necessary to optimise performance.”
The metro recently butted heads with metro police officials who embarked on an illegal protest over the city’s decision to reduce overtime by 50%. Dlabathi said that decision still stands.
The metro's repairs and maintenance budget increased by R339m to R3.5bn. The energy department received R1.4bn including infrastructure and equipment maintenance.
The budget allocation for water and sanitation repairs and maintenance increased to R550m from R449m “mainly to ensure resilient infrastructure that secures sustainable supply of water and sanitation services. The allocation will also stretch to fixing water and sewer leakages”, Dlabathi said.
A total of R103m was allocated for the repair of streets and traffic lights, while R254m will be spent on protecting energy infrastructure.
The roads and transport managed was allocated R946m for road repairs and “patching” of potholes.
Repairing and maintenance of traffic signals was allocated R41.3m, while R207m would be used for the procurement of material and supplies to “enable internal capacity to further patch potholes, to undertake road marking, signage and stormwater maintenance”.
About R226m would be used for materials and supplies to support internal capacity to cut “grass, maintenance of cemeteries, removal of weeds, pruning of trees, as well as to maintain landfill sites, wetlands and lakes and dams”.
Of the R20.7m allocated to human settlements, Dlabathi said R7.5m would be used to repair and maintain hostels. He said R54m has been set aside to address sinkholes.
“These are the minimum drivers that bind us as public representatives, senior management and the entire labour force to do right on behalf of those we must serve. Failure to do so, will result into service delivery regression and further public mistrust,” Dlabathi said.
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