OVERPAID AND UNDER-DELIVERING: Joburg’s R5-million execs and the city that can’t keep the lights on
There are moments in South Africa where you read a headline and think, “Surely this must be satire?” And yet, here we are again, discovering that several City of Joburg executives are earning between R3.5-million and nearly R5-million a year, while the city itself operates like a group assignment where only one person pitched up.
If you live in Johannesburg, you already know the plot:
- The electricity goes out.
- The water takes public holidays seriously.
- Pikitup occasionally forgets to pick it up.
- And the roads… well, you drive on them using hope, prayer, and wheel alignment.
But fear not, the executives in charge of these collapsing services are doing just fine. Very fine. R5-million-a-year fine.
The Joburg Paradox: Champagne salaries, municipal-tap-water service
To be fair, salaries of municipal executives managing a metro with a R90-billion budget aren’t completely insane on paper. If anything, the CFO role is arguably undervalued considering the governance failures in the City of Johannesburg.
But the issue isn’t pay, it’s performance. If an executive is paid well, taxpayers expect service delivery, not service theatre.
Instead, Daily Maverick’s investigation reads like parody: executives at City Power, Joburg Water, Pikitup and the Johannesburg Roads Agency have enjoyed salary jumps of up to 86% since 2022.
Eighty. Six. Percent.
If Joburg Water increased your water pressure by 86%, you’d host a neighbourhood braai.
Even better, these hikes exceed the national upper limits for metro managers. But Joburg says the rules don’t apply because its entities are “municipal-owned companies”.
Which is basically saying:
“Yes, I see the law, but I choose ‘no’.”
The President earns R4.2m. Some Joburg execs said: “Shame, man.”
A number of these executives now earn more than the President of South Africa, a man who oversees an entire country and not a single municipal entity that can’t keep rubbish off the streets.
If Cyril Ramaphosa applied to be a municipal CEO in Joburg, he might genuinely be told his experience “isn’t strong enough”.
“It’s in line with policy”: South Africa’s favourite get-out-of-jail phrase
When questioned about inflated executive pay, the City of Joburg said all salaries are “in line with legislative frameworks.”
Of course they are.
Everything in South Africa is in line with something, except the potholes, which are not in line with the road.
The City also said adjustments consider CPIX, skills scarcity and macroeconomic factors.
Ironic, because the only thing scarce in Joburg right now is service delivery.
Thirteen entities later… welcome to Joburg’s municipal universe
This is where Johannesburg takes centre stage as the Beyoncé of metros:
It has 13 municipal entities, each with its own CEO, board, senior managers and performance incentives.
- Cape Town: 1 entity
- Tshwane: 2
- eThekwini: 2
- Joburg: “Hold my clipboard.”
Imagine:
13 HR departments.
13 CFOs.
13 strategy offsites.
13 teams saying, “We’ll get back to you.”
National Treasury has repeatedly warned that Joburg’s employee costs are unsustainable, but the structure remains untouched.
The gap between billing and reality
Joburg currently collects 83% of billed revenue, far below the 94.7% target. The difference runs into billions, which directly affects service delivery.
But here’s the absurdity:
Revenue is collapsing.
Service delivery is collapsing.
Yet executive salaries keep rising.
In any other world, that’s called malpractice. In Joburg, it’s called Tuesday.
State-led inflation: The cost of mismanagement
Julia Fish from the Johannesburg Civic Alliance summed it up:
Public sector executives continue receiving above-inflation increases while municipal finances are failing.
Residents meanwhile face rising tariffs for:
- Water that doesn’t flow,
- Electricity that arrives part-time,
- Refuse collection that depends on luck,
- Roads that are basically gravel with illusions of tar.
This is state-led inflation, where costs escalate because salaries escalate, not because service delivery improves.
A city on the brink with champagne taste and tap-water delivery
Let’s be blunt: executives earning R4–5 million annually should be delivering a city that at least pretends to function.
If Joburg were a business, the CEO would be fired for losing customers, missing KPIs, and forgetting how to invoice.
If Joburg were a school, the principal would earn more than the minister while the school ran out of chalk and teachers.
If Joburg were a relationship, your friends would stage an intervention.
So what now?
There are rumblings of a review of the executive pay framework in 2025. Treasury and the Auditor-General have raised concerns. But between a “review” and actual implementation lies a long, windy road, with, yes, potholes.
Maybe Joburg doesn’t need a salary review as much as it needs a performance review:
- Did the water flow?
- Did the roads improve?
- Did the rubbish get collected?
- Did the streetlights stay on?
If yes? Great, here’s your raise.
If no? Sorry, wena, try again next year.
Until then…
Ratepayers will keep paying more. Executives will keep earning more. And Joburg will keep being Joburg, a city full of brilliant people, broken systems, and executives who seem to be living on a different planet.
At least the memes will be elite.