JOHANNESBURG - The DA Johannesburg mayoral candidate, Helen Zille, said the City of Johannesburg is bankrupt.
Zille announced during a media briefing on Wednesday.
She's described the City as being in an ongoing crisis with no plan.
Zille said the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, has blown the lid off the financial meltdown in the City of Johannesburg.
In a letter to Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero, leaked out of the city and dated 23 April 2026, Zille says that the minister bluntly states that the city is effectively bankrupt.
"In my inbox came a letter from the Minister of Finance, which is unprecedented in terms of its directness and its conclusions about the major financial centre in South Africa, which is, of course, Johannesburg," Zille said.
"In all my years in politics, I haven't read a letter quite so forthright and quite so blunt with such devastating consequences if the actions stipulated in that letter are not taken. So basically what the minister says is that Jo'burg is bankrupt."
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The mayoral candidate highlighted practical consequences of the financial mismanagement: malfunctioning substations without circuit breakers, unresolved water leaks due to a lack of spare parts, broken streetlights with no ladder trucks to repair them, and a general inability to maintain or restore basic city services.
"It explains why there are no ladder lorries to fix broken lights," Zille said.
"It explains why nothing can be done to maintain and fix the collapse of services across Jo'burg."