Ekurhuleni was once held up as a model metropolitan municipality. It achieved clean audit opinions. Its infrastructure, inherited from the industrial heartland of the East Rand, was functional. Its revenue base, anchored by OR Tambo International Airport and major manufacturing, was strong. That era is over.
The most emblematic failure is a municipal office refurbishment project. Originally budgeted at R46 million, it ballooned to R300 million — a 551% cost overrun that would be scandalous in the private sector and catastrophic in a municipality where every rand diverted from service delivery means potholes unfilled, water pipes unrepaired, and electricity substations unmaintained.
Ekurhuleni has lost its clean audit status. The infrastructure maintenance backlog is exploding. Political instability — driven by coalition dynamics after the 2021 elections — has produced multiple leadership changes, each bringing new priorities and new patronage networks. The municipality that once worked is being hollowed out by the same forces that collapsed dozens of others across South Africa.