LOCAL ELECTIONS 2026: Joburg accused of using workers as ‘political pawns’ in last-minute wage deal

Municipal workers should not be treated as political pawns on the eve of an election, a Johannesburg civic organisation has warned following the City’s announcement of a multibillion-rand salary agreement just hours before voters go to the polls.

JoburgCAN managing director Julia Fish said workers who had been denied decent wages for years deserved the salary adjustments, but warned that the financially distressed municipality could not make commitments that would burden the incoming administration or further compromise service delivery.

The agreement, announced at 5pm on Tuesday, is linked to a settlement affecting an estimated 35,000 municipal workers, according to the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu).

At the conclusion of Tuesday’s press conference announcing the agreement, Johannesburg’s executive deputy mayor and finance MMC, Loyiso Masuku, urged workers to vote in Wednesday’s local government elections.

The City and Samwu announced that they had signed an addendum to their November 2025 politically facilitated salary-parity agreement, involving contemplated payments of between R1.2-billion and R5-billion.

But the City has not disclosed when the money will be paid, how much remains outstanding or where the funds will come from.

The original settlement involved approximately R10.3-billion, with payments scheduled through July 2027.

According to Samwu regional secretary Thobani Nkosi, only R1.2-billion had been paid by late October, while another R5.2-billion had been due in July.

Workers should not be political pawns

Fish said that salary adjustments had been made for senior managers but not for the bulk of municipal workers, which was unjust.

However, she said the agreement needed to form part of a properly considered and consultative budget process, rather than being accommodated through an adjustment budget regularising overspending or through financial decisions made outside the city council.

Such decisions, she warned, could hamstring the incoming administration.

Fish also raised concerns about contractors and small businesses waiting for payment from the City and the consequences of those delays for working-class families.

“We cannot cut entity revenue and budgets for the PFA [politically facilitated agreement] and create further project delays,” she said, warning that this could harm other workers and residents urgently needing infrastructure improvements.

Johannesburg Crisis Alliance (JCA) coordinator Yunus Chamda similarly cautioned against placing workers and residents in opposition to one another.

“Workers have a right to receive what is lawfully due to them. Residents have a right to reliable municipal services and responsible management of public funds. The City has an obligation to uphold both.”

Chamda said the agreement must be accompanied by a credible, transparent and affordable funding plan protecting essential services and infrastructure investment.

“Johannesburg cannot resolve one set of financial obligations by creating another crisis elsewhere in the municipality.”

Treasury warned City

The agreement comes despite a warning from Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in April that Johannesburg was in severe financial distress.

In a letter to Mayor Dada Morero, Godongwana instructed the City to halt implementation of the salary agreement, describing it as unfunded and warning that it threatened the municipality’s financial sustainability.

He revealed that Johannesburg owed creditors R25.2-billion against cash and cash equivalents of just R3.9-billion in the 2024/25 financial year.

It remains unclear whether the Treasury has subsequently accepted the funding arrangements or withdrawn its objections.

Fish warned that the manner in which the latest addendum had been concluded could also jeopardise its implementation.

She said Godongwana had made it clear that he would intervene if councils approved unfunded budgets or followed processes that contravened the Municipal Finance Management Act.

“The way this addendum has been concluded could put its implementation at risk,” she said.

Her warning raises questions not only about whether Johannesburg can afford the agreement, but also whether the process followed to conclude it meets the requirements of municipal financial legislation.

In July, Morero acknowledged that the City could not immediately afford the payment due that month and was negotiating a deferral with Samwu.

What does it mean for residents?

Johannesburg’s 2026/27 budget provides for R88.3-billion in operating expenditure and R8.8-billion in capital expenditure.

A R5-billion payment would be equivalent to more than half the City’s annual capital budget, illustrating the scale of the commitment, although capital allocations cannot simply be diverted to salaries.

The City projected an operating surplus of R2.1-billion, but recent financial reports raise questions about whether this can be achieved.

According to the JCA, Johannesburg collected only 85.3% of billed revenue during the 2025/26 financial year, against a target of 88.5%.

Operating expenditure exceeded the budget by R4.8-billion, while cash balances had fallen to R2.012-billion by the end of July.

Employee costs alone amounted to R2.026-billion that month.

For residents already battling prolonged water outages, electricity failures, potholes and deteriorating infrastructure, the concern is that additional salary commitments could further squeeze funding for essential repairs and maintenance.

There are also questions about Johannesburg’s centralised cash-sweeping system.

Last week, JCA, WaterCAN and JoburgCAN raised concerns about City Power's reported R22.5-billion internal overdraft, while Johannesburg Water recorded a R2.3-billion credit balance.

The organisations have called for greater transparency about how revenue collected by municipal entities is managed and whether sufficient funds are being retained for essential infrastructure.

There is no evidence that these funds have been allocated to the salary agreement, but the City’s financial position raises questions about its capacity to absorb further expenditure.

Workers demand what they are owed

Samwu maintains that the salary adjustments are long overdue and are intended to correct historical disparities dating back to the amalgamation of Johannesburg’s local authorities.

In a July statement, the union insisted that the politically facilitated agreement was not a political favour but an obligation to workers who had endured years of unequal remuneration.

Last week, workers protested after the City failed to honour payments expected in July, disrupting traffic and municipal operations.

Samwu subsequently rejected a revised payment proposal, arguing that it departed from the original agreement.

Tuesday’s addendum seeks to accelerate implementation of a common salary scale and place affected employees at the appropriate grades.

However, the City has not disclosed the longer-term implications for its wage bill.

While retrospective payments may be once-off obligations, permanently adjusting salary scales could increase personnel expenditure for years.

The agreement has also faced legal opposition. In March, the DA approached the Gauteng High Court seeking to halt implementation of the R10.3-billion settlement, arguing that it was unaffordable and threatened service delivery. The urgent application was struck from the roll for lack of urgency, without the court ruling on its merits.

The JCA has called for the full financial implications of the agreement to be made public and subjected to independent scrutiny.

For Chamda, the issue is not whether workers should receive what they are owed.

“The central question is not whether workers should receive what is owed to them. It is whether the City has a responsible and sustainable plan to pay them without further compromising the services on which millions of Johannesburg residents depend.” DM

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