Unpaid municipal bills in Johannesburg have climbed to nearly R72 billion, up from about R15 billion a decade ago, according to the Centre for Development and Enterprise.
CDE executive director Ann Bernstein told EWN that the city’s economy grew by roughly 1% a year over the past decade while municipal expenditure increased by more than 7.5% annually between the 2014/15 and 2024/25 financial years.
The gap has emerged alongside repeated tariff increases. From July, Johannesburg electricity tariffs rose by 8.6%, water by 12.5%, sanitation by 11% and refuse collection by 6.2%.
CDE’s figures show employee costs increasing by R8.6 billion to more than R20 billion over the period it examined. The organisation said real spending on infrastructure had fallen to about half its earlier level.
The nearly R72 billion figure includes money owed to the municipality by households, businesses and other customers. It does not mean that the full amount is immediately recoverable, and the city may classify portions of outstanding debt differently across its accounts.
Johannesburg has faced sustained pressure over electricity, water, roads and waste services while trying to collect revenue from a large and uneven customer base.
The CDE analysis argues that higher tariffs have not closed the city’s financial gap as unpaid accounts and operating costs have continued to rise. The City of Johannesburg’s response to the latest figures was not included in the report reviewed by EBNewsDaily.
