City of Tshwane denies DA claims linking budget cuts to service delivery failures
The City of Tshwane has dismissed claims by the Democratic Alliance that recent budget adjustments are worsening service delivery problems, saying the party is distorting the city’s financial situation and unfairly shifting blame for infrastructure failures.
The mayor’s spokesperson, Samkelo Mgobozi, said the DA was exaggerating and misrepresenting facts following a media briefing by former mayor Cilliers Brink. Brink suggested that extended electricity outages and financial pressure at the metro were linked to recent budget decisions, claiming that hundreds of millions of rand were being removed from departments such as electricity services.
Mgobozi rejected these allegations, stating that the city was not implementing blanket cuts of R777 million as claimed. He explained that departments were instructed to identify savings of about R316 million from non-strategic items and non-essential overtime, in line with the Municipal Finance Management Act.
According to Mgobozi, the budget adjustment is meant to cover the first phase of salary back pay owed to municipal workers. He said this obligation arose from a wage dispute dating back to 2021 during a DA led administration. The back pay was not included in the original budget, as the city at the time refused to honour agreed salary increases and instead sought a court exemption, which it later lost.
Mgobozi added that the original liability of approximately R450 million had increased to around R1.5 billion due to delays and ongoing legal processes. He warned that renewed legal challenges would likely create further instability without changing the outcome.
The city also denied claims that National Treasury was withholding funds. Mgobozi said Tshwane had responded to correspondence regarding equitable share transfers and that Treasury had since confirmed its satisfaction, releasing the December allocation in full.
He stated that there was no threat of withheld funding and no unresolved engagement with the National Treasury. Mgobozi accused the DA of linking unrelated matters such as wage back pay, power outages, water tanker costs and Treasury correspondence in an effort to portray the current administration as ineffective.
He said the deterioration of Tshwane’s electricity infrastructure was the result of years of underinvestment and delayed maintenance and could not be attributed to an administration that has been in office for just over 1 year.
Mgobozi said the multiparty coalition government remains focused on stabilizing the city, fulfilling commitments to employees, safeguarding essential services and addressing long-standing challenges inherited from previous administrations.
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