Salary drought reportedly threatens Joburg City as it flirts with ‘disaster’ – bailout time?
It is uncertain if the employees in the City will receive their salaries at the end of this month, according to a report.
City of Johannesburg executive mayor, Herman Mashaba.
The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) could be stumbling towards its reserves to bail it out amid reported financial dire straits.
City Press reports that, as it heads towards the end of its 2017/18 financial year, the CoJ had only R1.2 billion reflecting in its balance at the end of April, while a shortfall of R3.5 billion was projected for May and June.
June is the end of the financial year, and at this point, it is uncertain if the employees in the City will receive their salaries at the end of this month, the Sunday paper reports.
The CoJ, under mayor Herman Mashaba, has had to turn to its reserves to keep it going, but it might have to turn to the provincial government and National Treasury for a bit of help.
The City has denied being on the brink of disaster, saying its cash balances at the end of April were as high as R3.279 billion. However, it also mentioned financial reserves it has safeguarded for “debt redemption, capital grants and the debt redemption fund”.
As it has already done in the past, the party that governs the City, the DA, insists that its financial troubles stem from the bad track record of the ANC administrations that came before.
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