Is the City of Johannesburg too broke to fix Lilian Ngoyi Street?

The DA in the City of Johannesburg claims that the municipality does not have money to carry out essential projects.

DA caucus leader in the City of Johannesburg Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku told The Citizen that big projects like the Lilian Ngoyi Street (formerly Bree Street) renovations and a promise of 5 000 CCTV cameras that were supposed to be installed in the City were at risk of not materialising because there was no money.

R196m to be set aside to fix Bree street

On Thursday, Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda announced at least R196m would be allocated for the rehabilitation of Lillian Ngoyi Street. The project is penciled in to be completed by the end of 2024.

“It is very clear from the mayor’s statement that he has no plan. He should take the residents into confidence and let the residents know the true state of the city’s finances since we are aware that service providers have not been paid,” said Kayser-Echeozonjoku.

Where will the money come from?

According to the DA, the City of Johannesburg had made an appeal to have Lillian Ngoyi Street declared a disaster site. This would have seen funds trickling down from the Gauteng provincial government to rehabilitate the area. The application was turned down.

“They have to be transparent with us if they have now received the funds to fix that street,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku said.

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The total budget for the City of Johannesburg stands at over R80bn.

“We told them that the R80bn that they have is an unfunded budget and it is unrealistic. They should tell us where this money will come from.”

Kayser-Echeozonjoku said there were signs that the city was struggling financially. She said the recent flooding in the inner city was an indication that no maintenance was being done in the storm water drainage system around the CBD.

“I am submitting questions to the mayor about the 5 000 cameras. I have some questions about the sewer leaks and how many buildings in the CBD are actually dilapidated,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku said.

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Last year the City of Johannesburg received a R2bn loan from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). Before it received the loan there were fears that the city would not be able to continue paying staff salaries.

“We would like to know how this money was spent and what the repayment arrangements for this loan are,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku said.

The Citizen had reached out to the City of Johannesburg for comment but there had been no response at the time of publishing.