Budget under fire over ‘hundreds of new top jobs’

The City of Johannesburg unlawfully expanded its senior management establishment by more than 200%, according to court papers filed by DA mayoral candidate Helen Zille in the Johannesburg high court this week.

She is seeking to have the city’s 2026/27 budget reviewed and set aside, and this is the third challenge she has launched in recent months.

The latest application argues that while the city instructed departments and municipal-owned entities to slash expenditure, freeze appointments and tighten controls over employee costs, it simultaneously budgeted for hundreds of additional senior management positions that were never lawfully authorised.

The case comes amid growing public scrutiny over governance at Johannesburg’s municipal entities. In recent months, City Power has defended the integrity of its recruitment processes after allegations surrounding senior appointments, while executive remuneration at municipal-owned companies has also attracted criticism as residents continue to endure electricity interruptions, water shortages and deteriorating service delivery.

The number of senior management posts rises from 330 to 1,025 in a single year. The city has no approved staff establishment that authorises those posts

—  Helen Zille, DA mayoral candidate

Zille argues that the municipality’s latest budget reveals an even bigger governance problem.

“The number of senior management posts rises from 330 to 1,025 in a single year. The city has no approved staff establishment that authorises those posts. The city admits as much,” the affidavit states.

Zille contends that municipalities may only create and fill positions that appear on a formally approved organisational structure adopted by council.

Without that, budgeting for those positions is contrary to legislation and undermines the legality of the entire employee-cost framework contained in the city’s budget, she says.

She also claims that documentation supporting the budget is internally inconsistent.

According to the court papers, the personnel schedules used to calculate employee costs differ materially from the municipality’s own establishment records, meaning the council approved billions of rands in staffing expenditure using figures that do not correspond with the city’s official organisational structure.

“The personnel table that underpins its employee-cost framework is, on the city’s own account, a ‘finance-side budgeting projection’. The city’s own establishment records present, in the city’s own words, ‘a materially different picture from the budget table’,” the affidavit states.

Zille argues that this contradiction strikes at the heart of the Municipal Finance Management Act, which requires municipal budgets to be supported by accurate, credible and legally compliant information.

The affidavit does not identify precisely where each of the additional 695 senior management posts would be located

In February this year, city manager Floyd Brink issued a cost-containment memorandum aimed at stabilising Johannesburg’s finances.

According to the affidavit:

• City Power was instructed to reduce its budget by R767.2m;
• Johannesburg Water was told to reduce its budget by R575.7m; and
• Pikitup was required to cut R98.5m from its expenditure.

Zille argues that the municipality’s decision to budget for an unprecedented increase in senior management posts while simultaneously instructing entities to reduce employee costs presents an irreconcilable contradiction.

The affidavit does not identify precisely where each of the additional 695 senior management posts would be located.

The application seeks an order reviewing and setting aside the budget, arguing that the city’s employee-cost framework rests on an unlawful staffing establishment and materially inconsistent personnel information.

The city did not respond to questions by the Sunday Times on the court action or the senior management positions.

In an earlier application, Zille asked the court to compel the city and Joburg Water to implement the Joburg Water turnaround strategy, which it adopted in 2024 but allegedly failed to execute.

And in a separate case, she is seeking to have a controversial agreement between the city and the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) declared unlawful, alleging it saddles Johannesburg with more than R10bn in long-term salary obligations.