Joburg’s unpaid bills are drying up taps, literally

Auditor-General flags a 311-day payment delay as communities go days without water and contractors abandon work.

For many Joburg residents, a glass of water is no longer something you take for granted, it’s become a reminder of unpaid bills and stalled service delivery. New audit findings reveal that the City of Johannesburg is South Africa’s second-worst municipality in paying contractors, taking on average 311 days instead of the legal 30 to settle invoices. Only Mangaung fares worse, clocking 10.6 months.

This delay isn’t just a bureaucratic embarrassment, it has real consequences felt on the ground: abandoned construction sites, halted maintenance projects, and neighbourhoods left without clean water for days.

Why is Joburg paying almost a year late?

According to the Auditor-General’s Consolidated Local Government Audit Report for 2023-2024, the city’s financial troubles boil down to liquidity constraints and the controversial “sweeping” system a method that pulls revenue from municipal entities into a central account.

In theory, it streamlines oversight. In reality, it means departments can’t access their own funds, leaving contractors unpaid for months and sometimes walking off site.

The ripple effect has been massive:

• Projects stalled mid-construction

• Contractors refusing to tender for new work

• A backlog of infrastructure repairs

• Residents increasingly losing trust in the city

Joburg Water has taken the hardest hit and the public is feeling it.

Communities left without water again

It’s been a tough season for informal settlements. Residents in Nana’s Farm, Phumla-Mqashi, Veggie Land and Precast recently endured six days without water after water trucks stopped operating due to unpaid invoices, the fourth such incident this year.

“You can’t tell people on day six that there was no payment. We should have been told in advance,” said community leader DJ Phaka, describing the anxiety of surviving without water across 5,000 households.

Joburg Water later confirmed it had spoken to the service provider, deploying five internal trucks to help, promising supply would resume. But to many residents, the damage to trust is done.

On social media, Joburg users expressed frustration:

“We hear about billions owed, yet we’re queuing with buckets.”
“How do you fix infrastructure when contractors aren’t paid?”

This isn’t just a governance issue, it’s becoming a dignity issue.

Major construction halted as outstanding bills pile up

The payment crisis isn’t only affecting water trucks infrastructure upgrades are grinding to a halt.

At the Brixton tower and reservoir, one of the city’s flagship upgrades, contractors downed tools on 27 November over outstanding payments. Work has since resumed, but transparency remains patchy, and Joburg Water has delayed responses to media questions.

A parliamentary reply also exposed a list of unpaid water and sanitation projects, including:

This is not a small backlog, it’s a warning sign of deeper systemic strain.

Joburg’s trust deficit is growing

A city cannot function when contractors refuse to work, when water supply becomes unpredictable, and when infrastructure collapses faster than it can be repaired. Late payments may sound like paperwork, but in Joburg, they translate into dry taps, delayed upgrades, and communities on edge.

Residents have adapted to load shedding. Now they are adapting to water shedding. How long before adaptation becomes resignation?

With 311-day payment cycles, the question is no longer whether the system is failing, but how long before it collapses altogether.

{Source: The Citizen}

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