Godongwana revealed that the City of Johannesburg currently owes creditors R25.2 billion, while only having R3.9 billion in cash in the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a market of severe financial distress, indicating that the city does not have the liquidity required to pay its creditors,\u201d Godongwana said in a letter to Mayor Dada Morero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Godongwana has since met with the Executive Mayor, Dada Morero, to discuss the serious concerns raised by the National Treasury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe meeting on Friday, 8 May, between Minister Godongwana and Mayor Morero, and their respective teams of officials and technical experts, was robust and productive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe engagements are ongoing and are being treated with the urgency that they merit,\u201d the Treasury said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking in an interview with The Money Show<\/a>, Berry Everitt, CEO of Chas Everitt International Property Group, said the danger of the National Treasury\u2019s warning to the city is a loss of confidence in the property market,\u201d said Everitt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cProperty markets are so sensitive to perceptions of stability, competent governance, and reliable service delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the concerns around Johannesburg\u2019s finances come at a particularly sensitive time for the city, which had recently started showing signs of recovery after years of stagnant property growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everitt noted that Johannesburg property prices had underperformed for roughly a decade, while the Western Cape experienced significantly stronger growth driven by semigration trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s been a huge difference in property growth in the Western Cape and Johannesburg over the last couple of years, which is largely due to semigration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd the most important reasons behind that semigration are the perception of the good governance of Cape Town versus poor governance in Joburg.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A major indication of this perception on governance was noted in Henley and Partners\u2019 latest African Wealth Report, which showed that High-Net-Worth-Individuals (HNWIs) are leaving Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the report, over the past 10 years, while Johannesburg has lost 35% of its millionaires, the Cape Winelands region has seen a 42% increase in HNWIs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cape Town has experienced a 33% increase in HNWIs, and the Garden Route region has seen a 30% increase. Despite this, Johannesburg still remains the city with the highest number of HNWIs in South Africa as of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, while Johannesburg leads, Cape Town is rapidly closing the gap and is projected to potentially overtake it by 2030 due to continued wealth migration and lifestyle preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Everitt, Johannesburg had only recently begun regaining momentum, with more people returning from the Cape and overseas in search of work and business opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the past year, Johannesburg has been on the rise again, and we\u2019ve been really excited about that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, he warned that uncertainty around the city\u2019s financial future could quickly reverse those gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re concerned that investors and homeowners start to feel uncertain again about Johannesburg\u2019s financial future,\u201d said Everitt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey may delay buying decisions, postpone developments, or redirect investment elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added that the commercial property sector could also come under pressure if businesses lose confidence in the city\u2019s governance and infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBusinesses could be more cautious about expanding operations or signing long-term leases if they fear worsening infrastructure problems or instability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the concerns, Everitt stressed that Johannesburg still has major structural advantages as South Africa\u2019s economic centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJohannesburg remains South Africa\u2019s economic hub and has enormous underlying strengths. So, this is not a crisis that cannot be managed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, he warned that prolonged uncertainty would continue damaging sentiment and could eventually weigh on property values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe longer uncertainty continues, that\u2019s where the emotional writhing happens and the greater the potential impact on property values and investment sentiment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" City of Johannesburg\u2019s worsening financial position is posing a major risk to property sentiment and values in the city, which is already seeing an outflow of millionaires due to governance concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":860340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[24616,3796,853],"class_list":["post-860059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-city-of-johannesburg-coj","tag-national-treasury","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860059"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860345,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860059\/revisions\/860345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Millionaires are leaving<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Cape-Town-and-Johannesburg-1024x576.jpg\")
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