In a bold move to revive Johannesburg’s fortunes, Mayor Dada Morero has unveiled a high-impact implementation task force dubbed the “bomb squad”.
“In military language, a bomb squad has the responsibility of examining and removing bombs that are found and to prevent them from exploding. This CoJ [City of Johannesburg] Bomb Squad must remove constraints that are impacting on the city’s ability to create the Joburg we want to see,” says Morero.
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Introduced as part of the Presidential Support Package’s first mission – a comprehensive turnaround strategy – the bomb squad will target and eliminate systemic barriers hampering service delivery and development, says the mayor.
The squad will be headed by 73-year-old Dr Snuki Joseph Zikalala.
He is the president of the ANC Veterans’ League and former managing director of news and current affairs at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
The bomb squad is set to begin operations in June 2025.
‘Extreme actions needed to resolve challenges’
Morero spoke at length about the CoJ and its state of rot, calling it a crisis.
“We need extreme actions to resolve our challenges. We must behave in an unusual manner so that we can see and yield different results. Unlike the Covid-19 pandemic, our situation cannot be classified as a new normal.”
As part of his turnaround plan, Zikalala is taking bold steps to defuse the bomb that is Johannesburg. His strategy includes tackling potholes, illegal electricity connections, land invasions, illegal mining, rampant dumping, and the presence of undocumented migrants.
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In 2020, fact-checking organisation Africa Check reported that Johannesburg was grappling with an estimated 100 000 potholes – highlighting the scale of the city’s crumbling road infrastructure and the urgency behind the newly declared war on potholes.
Meanwhile, Eskom says it is losing money to illegal electricity connections. In the 2022/23 financial year, Eskom experienced non-technical losses of around R5 billion due to illegal connections, meter bypasses, and other electricity-related criminal activities within its supply area.
The city’s finances
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To ensure the success of the turnaround plan, Morero says a key objective is the immediate establishment of an economic workstream within the Presidential Support Package.
This dedicated team will be tasked with driving strategies to help the city achieve an average GDP growth rate of 3% over the next five years.
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According to a 2020 city profile by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Johannesburg contributes 16.5% to the economy and employs 12% of the national workforce.
“The city’s financial position remains fragile and it calls for a major reset in our financial management and revenue generation activities. Our revenue collection approach will be overhauled to improve the liquidity of the city, leading to its financial sustainability,” says Morero.
According to the CoJ’s integrated report for the 2023/24 financial year, revenue collection was at 86.7% against a target of 87.3% budgeted for the financial year.
“We will be robust in collecting revenue from those who have the means to pay,” says Morero.
Last year the CoJ warned that it would soon blacklist thousands of defaulting residential property owners and businesses to recoup more than R40 billion in municipal debt. Further to that, the CoJ and City Power owe Eskom R4.9 billion.
“We have no choice but to insist on proper financial discipline, so that we can ensure the proactive management of our income and expenditure, to derive the full value from each rand spent,” he says.
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