The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in Gauteng is deeply concerned by reports that the Gauteng Provincial Treasury is locked in urgent negotiations to prevent National Treasury from freezing R1.9 billion in provincial funding amid mounting debt owed to municipalities and widespread financial mismanagement across departments.

This crisis comes at a time when working-class communities across Gauteng are facing collapsing public infrastructure, overcrowded hospitals and clinics, housing backlogs, deteriorating schools, water and sanitation failures, rising unemployment and worsening poverty. It is therefore unacceptable that while communities suffer daily, several provincial departments failed to spend billions allocated for service delivery.

The Federation is outraged that approximately R1.4 billion in conditional grant funding meant for essential public services remained unspent while residents continue to experience severe hardships. This failure represents not merely administrative incompetence, but a direct betrayal of the people of Gauteng, particularly the poor and the working class who depend on public services for survival.

COSATU notes with serious concern the significant underspending by key departments including Health, Human Settlements, Education, Community Safety and Agriculture. These are not luxury portfolios. They are departments central to improving the lives of workers, the unemployed, pensioners, women and youth.

The Federation believes that continued underspending and poor financial controls point to deeper governance failures, weak consequence management, lack of planning and the inability of some departments to implement programmes effectively. At the same time, municipalities are drowning in debt, service delivery protests are escalating, and suppliers and workers face uncertainty because of delayed payments.

COSATU therefore calls for immediate accountability from all MECs and Heads of Departments responsible for non-spending and financial mismanagement. It cannot be business as usual while public resources meant to uplift communities are returned unspent or lost through inefficiency.

The Federation demands full disclosure of all departments and officials responsible for underspending and financial failures. Consequence management against MECs, HoDs and senior officials who fail to spend allocated budgets while communities suffer without services must be initiated. Stronger financial oversight and monitoring mechanisms to ensure that public funds are spent efficiently, transparently and within prescribed timelines are urgently required. Accelerated infrastructure delivery in schools, hospitals, clinics, roads and housing projects to address the massive service delivery backlog facing Gauteng residents.

COSATU further warns that ordinary workers and communities must not be punished for failures caused by poor governance and incompetence. Any freezing of funds will worsen already fragile service delivery conditions and deepen social and economic hardships across the province.

The Federation will continue to demand clean governance, effective spending of public resources and accountability from all public representatives and officials entrusted with serving the people.

Issued by COSATU Gauteng

Provincial Chairperson: Vusi Amos Monyela- 079 493 5002

Provincial Secretary: Louisah Moepeng Modikwe- 082 297 2659