Johannesburg in Brief: Metro Trading Services Reform Programme
- In July 2026, CDE hosted a discussion led by Deputy Minister of Finance Ashor Sarupen on the National Treasury’s Metro Trading Services Reform (MTSR) programme and its implications for metros such as Johannesburg.
- Sarupen argued the collapse of municipal trading services stems from a flawed funding model where metros use utility revenues to cross-subsidise unrelated functions, causing chronic underinvestment and masking administrative bloat.
- To arrest this decline, the MTSR programme draws on a R54 billion funding pool, including a R19 billion World Bank loan, to match qualifying municipal infrastructure expenditure rand-for-rand over five years.
- Participation is voluntary, but strictly conditional, requiring metros to navigate a six-year timeline of institutional milestones and linking financial disbursements to independently verified physical outcomes.
- While Treasury cannot dictate municipal spending, it can enforce compliance by expelling non-compliant metros from the programme or withholding equitable share funds, for example if utility debt continues to grow unabated.
- Assessing current progress, Johannesburg demonstrates only ‘minimum compliance’ with uneven commitment: City Power is quantifying revenue leakage, Joburg Water underfunds capital expenditure, and Pikitup lacks necessary financial quantification.
