THE City of Joburg (CoJ) is running out of cash, signalling a black Christmas this year for many workers.
Departments have been instructed to take "necessary measures" on how funds are used.
According to a memorandum sent to heads of departments on Tuesday, 3 October, seen by Daily Sun, the municipality has limited the cash for all payments with immediate effect.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng said it was concerned that the CoJ was on the verge of collapse.
Its caucus leader Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku said: "Liquidity reports as far back as 2019 indicate a dire financial situation, officials are worried about their salaries and internal memorandums the DA is in possession of, shows that the city will not be able to honour payment agreements."
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She said while the MMC of finance in the city and ANC councillor Dada Morero announced live on TV that the city’s finances are stabilising, the internal memorandum issued specifically advises group heads that the city treasury departments will determine cash outflows, meaning that some service providers won’t be paid.
She said Morero is focused on talking about what his party and its coalition partners inherited, rather than dealing with the real problem.
She said the current government had sufficiently demonstrated that it did not intend to use the city property portfolio to stabilise municipal finances, but rather to ensure that the Johannesburg Property Company was run by cadres.
"Despite the fact that National Treasury alerting the city that the budget is unfunded, the doomsday coalition now wants to lease a building to house municipal employees when it would have been much cheaper to maintain the original one," she said.
She said that according to the memorandums, in the next few months contractors working on municipal projects will not be paid and will stop work, service delivery such as refuse collection and by-law enforcement will become erratic, and whistleblowers and officials who speak up about corruption will be suspended to make way for more cadres.
She said DA has requested Section 71 reports from Morero and will review them.
“Among other reasons, the Democratic Alliance has tabled a motion for the dissolution of council. We're asking the residents of Johannesburg to give us a fresh mandate. We need to save the economic hub of the country,” said Kayser-Echeozonjoku.
