To understand the crisis around the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) agreement in Johannesburg, we need to go back to 2015, a turning point when the ANC began to realise that its hold on the major metros was no longer guaranteed.
Faced with growing public frustration and the real threat of electoral losses, the response should have been better governance and improved service delivery. Instead, politics began to take precedence over process.
Many residents will remember the Pikitup disruptions in the lead-up to the 2016 local government elections. Waste went uncollected, streets became unsanitary and communities were left frustrated and unheard. Under pressure, the city moved to reach an arrangement with workers, but this was not a properly concluded, lawful agreement. It was a political response to a crisis.
That moment showed what happens when urgency overrides governance. Unfortunately, instead of correcting course, the situation escalated. By 2025, what began as an informal, politically driven accommodation had evolved into a formal agreement, with enormous financial implications for the city. But beyond the size of the deal, there is a deeper and more troubling issue: how it was signed.
The 2025 agreement was signed by an individual who did not have the delegated authority to commit the city to a multiyear financial obligation exceeding R20m. That may sound technical, but its impact is anything but. Delegations of power exist for a reason. They are the safeguards that ensure no single individual can commit public money without proper oversight, checks and balances, and without confirming that the city can actually afford the decision being made.
When those safeguards are ignored, the system stops protecting the public and that is when residents begin to feel it, because every rand committed outside proper process has to come from somewhere. In a city already struggling with ageing infrastructure, frequent power outages, water disruptions and service backlogs, there is no room for financial missteps of this scale.
The 2025 agreement was signed by an individual who did not have the delegated authority to commit the city to a multiyear financial obligation exceeding R20m. That may sound technical, but its impact is anything but. Delegations of power exist for a reason.
When money is redirected to cover irregular or unfunded commitments, something else gives. It means fewer repairs, delayed upgrades, slower response times, and communities waiting longer for the basics such as electricity, water, refuse removal and safe roads.
For residents this is not about legislation or internal processes. It is about daily life. It is the frustration of sitting in the dark during yet another outage, the uncertainty of not knowing when water will return, and the reality of living in a city where services are no longer reliable.
Dangerous message
All of this is made worse when decisions are taken outside proper governance processes, but there is also a broader concern. If agreements of this magnitude can be signed by individuals without the proper authority, and if that is allowed to stand, it sends a dangerous message: that rules can be bent when it is politically convenient.
That is how institutions weaken. It also creates a cycle that is difficult to break. When major concessions follow pressure, especially close to elections, it encourages more of the same. Negotiations shift from sustainability towards timing and leverage. Over time this is no longer structured bargaining; it becomes governance by crisis.
This does not help workers, and it does not help residents. To be clear, municipal employees deserve fair pay and dignity in the workplace. Addressing inequality is important and necessary. But it must be done responsibly, transparently and in a way the city can sustain. Otherwise, the promise made today becomes the crisis of tomorrow.
Once a decision that puts public money at risk is made, the consequences do not stay in boardrooms or legal documents. They show up in people’s homes, in their streets and in their everyday lives. And it is residents, not politicians or negotiators, who are left to carry that burden.
Johannesburg deserves better than this. It deserves a government that respects its own rules, that protects public finances and puts residents at the centre of every decision.
• Echeozonjoko is a DA ward councillor and the leader of the official opposition in the Johannesburg city council.
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