Payment: 10.3 months

AG REPORT: HOW LONG YOU'LL WAIT IF YOU'RE A JOBURG CONTRACTOR >>→ City Power owes R1.2 billion as companies stop work.

- Yvonne Grimbeek

The City of Joburg is South Africa's second-worst municipality when it comes to settling debts with contractors.

The city takes an average of 10.3 months to pay its contractors, while Mangaung holds the title for the worst payment record with 10.6 months.

This is based on the auditor-general's Consolidated General Report on Local Government Audit Outcomes 2023-2024, which was updated in August.

Joburg's payment problems stem from both a liquidity crunch and the "sweeping" arrangement employed across all departments and entities of the city.

Sweeping refers to the pooling of the money generated by the entities into a central bank account - meaning that they do not have control over their finances and leads to them not being able to pay contractors.

The result of these late payments or nonpayments is evident across all Joburg's entities, but particularly so at Joburg Water.