Joburg and Emfuleni: A tale of 2 municipalities and the story of a crisis unfolding

The Emfuleni Local Municipality and the City of Johannesburg are two very different municipalities, in size and in economic reach, but they tell a lot about the future of local government.

Professor Daniel Meyer is economic development specialist and policy analyst, School of Public Management, Governance and Public Policy, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg.

South Africa’s local government crisis is no longer an annual warning by the Auditor-General reports or municipal budget reports. It is clearly visible in the daily lives of residents: taps without water or with dirty water, sewage in the streets and rivers, electricity blackouts and incorrect rates and taxes accounts, roads that are not repaired, and waste removal failures. The latest National Treasury MFMA Compliance Report 2024/25, together with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s warning to the City of Johannesburg in April 2026, confirms what communities have known for years: too many municipalities are financially distressed, poorly governed and drifting away from their constitutional purpose of basic service delivery.

Two municipalities tell this story particularly well. Emfuleni Local Municipality and the City of Johannesburg are very different in size and economic importance, but they are showing the same disease. Emfuleni serves about 825,000 people (650,000 people living in townships) in a former industrial heartland along the Vaal River. Johannesburg is the country’s largest metropolitan economy, home to about six million people and contributing about 16% to national output. Yet both are drowning in debt, struggling with weak financial controls and facing deep service delivery failures. Emfuleni’s debt is estimated at about R10-billion. Johannesburg’s creditor debt is reported at about R25.2-billion. These are symptoms of institutions that are losing the ability to manage public money and deliver basic services.

The key difference is that Emfuleni is further down the road of collapse. Johannesburg is not yet Emfuleni, but it is moving in the same direction. Emfuleni shows what happens when warnings are ignored for too long. The municipality has recorded massive unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, owes billions to Eskom and Rand Water and has faced repeated bank account attachments. Its environmental failures have also become a criminal justice matter, with its municipal manager facing charges linked to pollution of the Vaal River. Several interventions and financial recovery plans have failed to produce a real turnaround.

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