2026 Report Card
The full-year assessment of the City of Johannesburg's service delivery — six pillars, published sources, sensitivity analysis, and every response the city gave verbatim. Grades reflect audited 2024/25 data (AGSA MFMA released May 2026).
Water & Sanitation
Score 21.3/100 · Far below the standard
Persistent breach of published service standards. Trend: stable over the last three cycles. Peer rank 6th of 8.
Full pillar report →Electricity
Score 32.7/100 · Well below the standard
Sustained under-performance against most indicators. Trend: stable over the last three cycles. Peer rank 5th of 8.
Full pillar report →Roads & Mobility
Score 39.4/100 · Well below the standard
Sustained under-performance against most indicators. Trend: stable over the last three cycles. Peer rank 7th of 8.
Full pillar report →Billing & Customer Service
Score 34.1/100 · Well below the standard
Sustained under-performance against most indicators. Trend: declining over the last three cycles. Peer rank 4th of 8.
Full pillar report →Safety
Score 35.0/100 · Well below the standard
Sustained under-performance against most indicators. Trend: declining over the last three cycles. Peer rank 6th of 8.
Full pillar report →Governance & Finance
Score 60.8/100 · Mixed performance
Some indicators on target, others drifting. Trend: declining over the last three cycles. Peer rank 3rd of 8.
Full pillar report →Sensitivity analysis
92% of pillar grades held stable under ±20% weight perturbation. Three grades are flagged borderline in the assessment above.
The city responds
Johannesburg Water notes the assessment and confirms that its 2025/26 non-revenue water figure of 48.2% is consistent with the Auditor-General's finding. A five-year Turnaround Programme, adopted in September 2025, targets a 4-percentage-point reduction by June 2028 through active leak detection in Zones 3, 7 and 11 and accelerated meter replacement in Soweto. Progress is reported quarterly to the Section 79 Committee. Bulk supply constraints from Rand Water's Vaal system remain outside the entity's control but are factored into the reservoir-management strategy.
City Power acknowledges the reported energy-losses figure of 27.8% and highlights that R1.4 billion was reprioritised in the 2025/26 adjustments budget toward smart-meter roll-out in the Randburg and Roodepoort service areas. NERSA's proposed municipal-distributor KPI framework, once gazetted, will provide the first standardised outage benchmark against which our performance can be judged; we welcome the scorecard's plan to adopt those metrics as they become official.
Revenue notes the collection rate of 81% and the Ombudsman's resolution figures. The billing-query resolution KPI reflects a step-change in complaint volumes following the SAP migration completed in October 2025; residual data cleansing continues, with a 90-day intensive plan concluding end-August 2026. The Ombudsman's higher resolution rate this cycle is welcomed.
The City welcomes the upgrade in audit outcome to unqualified-with-findings (2024/25), the first improvement in five audit cycles, and notes Moody's April 2026 affirmation of the Ba3 rating with a positive outlook. UIFW expenditure has reduced from R4.8 billion to R2.1 billion over the reporting window. The City reiterates its commitment to a further reduction through the Consequence Management Framework adopted by Council in February 2026.