The Times Editorial: Johannesburg is battling a cash crisis. Last week, it asked the city council to approve R4.4-billion in loans to tide it over while it waits for funding from the National Treasury.

The request for the short-term loans - ostensibly to ensure continued service delivery - follows a report by the auditor-general that detailed multimillion-rand losses for the city that is South Africa's economic engine.

With a budget of R33-billion for the new financial year, which began on Friday, should the city be incurring debt to deal with a shortage of funds?

And where exactly did its liquidity crisis originate?

What is clear from various reports is that, though last year's soccer World Cup might have made us the darlings of the sporting world for a month, the negative legacy of hosting the tournament will be felt for a long time.

Judging from the city's financial statements, it is the World Cup that set it on its precarious financial path when, in August 2009, it was asked to find R1-billion to complete the FNB stadium.

Johannesburg - which started out in the black - ended that financial year with a R510-million deficit.

On top of all of this came the grim effects of the billing crisis, which resulted in the city losing millions of rands.

By asking for the short-term loans, Johannesburg is exposing the long-term cost of the World Cup.

But it also exposes our economic heartland as a city that has not managed its systems and accounting with a strict hand.

The new mayor and his city manager will have to make enormous work of the deficits.

If they do not lift the city out of this financial crisis, Johannesburg's credit rating will drop and, with it, investor confidence in Africa's most powerful commercial centre.