Joburg’s power, water, and roads limp forward with slim budget increases

The City of Johannesburg’s draft medium-term budget for the new financial year proposes slim increases for three of the most embattled units that are facing dire infrastructure failures.

The 2025/26 draft budget, which the City notified stakeholders was available on Monday, proposes a mere 13% increase in spending for City Power, Johannesburg Water also gets 13% more to spend, while Johannesburg Roads Agency gets a 2% hike in budget.

This comes as its draft Integrated Development Plan (IDP) – which was also flagged as available on Monday – stated that it is targeting “improved quality of life and development driven resilience for all,” by 2040.

Johannesburg is seemingly battling endless water and power outages, some of which last for days on end while some of the multitude of potholes are large enough to write off a car.

The IDP also said that one of its strategic priorities was “infrastructure development”.

In the IDP, Executive Mayor Dada Morero said that the plan was “a People’s Plan, shaped by the voices of Johannesburg’s residents”. He noted that: “Service delivery remains at the heart of this administration’s commitment to the people of Johannesburg.

“While challenges exist, this IDP outlines a focused approach to infrastructure investment, improved maintenance strategies, and strengthened accountability mechanisms. Residents can expect continued improvements in access to clean water, stable electricity, well maintained roads, and efficient waste management,” Morero said.

Among the core areas that would take priority, City Manager Tshepo Makola, cited reducing water losses, upgrading pipelines, and ensuring equitable access to clean water; enhancing grid resilience, accelerating the rollout of independent power solutions, and improving response times for outages; and expanding road maintenance programs, upgrading major transport corridors, and enhancing public transport efficiency.

Roads, the document stated would be tackled through its "Fix Joburg Roads" Campaign, which will be rolled out to repair potholes and resurface high-risk roads as part of its 18-month plan. It added that, over three years, it would modernise transportation, including expanding the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system to Soweto, Alexandra, and Cosmos City.

The BRT along Louis Botha, a major throughfare from the city centre to Alexandra, has been under construction for about a decade.

The IDP also lists an 18-month plan to repairs and rehabilitate water infrastructure targeting areas with high nonrevenue water losses, particularly in Lenasia, Diepsloot, and Midrand. It also said it would introduce a rapid response leak detection system to address burst pipes and water wastage.

In the document, there is also a three-year plan to modernise Johannesburg Water infrastructure, which includes “major upgrades to water treatment plants, ensuring improved water quality and capacity” as well as “underground pipeline replacement projects, prioritising neighbourhoods with ageing infrastructure”.

At the same time, over the next 18 months, the City will “fast-track partnerships with independent power producers to stabilise electricity supply” as well as accelerate the roll out of pre-paid meters to cut down on theft.

Longer term, it seeks to restructure City Power. This includes overhauling “the transformer and substation maintenance program to prevent outages in high-risk areas such as Soweto, Alexandra, and Orange Farm”.

On Monday morning, just after midnight, City Power posted an update on an outage at the Alexandra Substation, which occurred just after 8pm on Sunday. “Due to multiple cable faults and access challenges, work is handed over to the morning shift,” the WhatsApp channel said.

By 8am on Monday morning, its team was “en route to locate faults in the remaining load centres” as power to some areas was still out it said on X. By 11am, power had yet to be restored.

Morero said the executive team recognised that “Johannesburg faces complex challenges. Issues such as service delivery constraints, safety concerns, and economic pressures impact the daily lives of our residents. These challenges, while significant, present us with an opportunity to work together in reimagining a city that is efficient, safe, and inclusive.”

Makola added that part of the plan was to restore the City to financial stability.

IOL