City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality and City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality are both metropolitan municipalities, which makes them directly comparable: each holds the full set of municipal powers, with no district municipality above it. This puts them side by side on the figures they report to National Treasury and to Statistics South Africa.

38.9 against 27.8financial health scores out of 100 for City of Johannesburg and City of Tshwane respectively, from their most recent audited year

The basics

Measure City of Johannesburg City of Tshwane
Province Gauteng Gauteng
MDB code JHB TSH
Population 4 803 262 4 040 315
Households 1 841 917 1 322 252
Area 1 643 km2 6 298 km2
People per km2 2 923.5 641.5
Council seats 270 214
Governing party ANC/EFF/PA Coalition DA/ActionSA/FF Plus/ACDP/UDM/COPE Coalition
Executive mayor Dada Morero Nasiphi Moya

Money

Measure City of Johannesburg City of Tshwane
Financial health grade E E
Score out of 100 38.9 (stronger) 27.8
Audit outcome Qualified audit Qualified audit
Operating revenue R76.9 billion R48.1 billion
Operating expenditure R79.5 billion R46.9 billion
Operating margin -3.4% 2.3% (stronger)
Current ratio 0.65:1 (stronger) 0.34:1
Months of cash 1.5 (stronger) -4.8
Irregular spending 6.0% (stronger) 11.0%

Household services

Service City of Johannesburg City of Tshwane
Piped water inside dwelling 77.1% (stronger) 71.3%
Flush toilet connected to sewerage 93.0% (stronger) 81.5%
Electricity for lighting 94.1% (stronger) 91.8%
Weekly refuse removal 90.5% (stronger) 81.0%
Formal dwellings 89.8% (stronger) 86.3%

People

Measure City of Johannesburg City of Tshwane
Population under 15 21.9% 23.0%
Population over 65 5.0% 6.1%
Higher education, aged 20 and over 15.0% 22.2%
No schooling, aged 20 and over 3.5% 3.9%

How to read this

Rand amounts are not marked stronger or weaker, because the larger municipality will always spend more and that says nothing about how well it is run. The judgements above are made only on ratios and percentages, which are comparable regardless of size.

The financial health grade measures financial management, not service delivery. A municipality can score well on one and modestly on the other, which is why both appear here.

Put these two, or any others, side by side yourself in the comparison tool, or read the full City of Johannesburg and City of Tshwane profiles.

Figures on this page come from National Treasury, Statistics South Africa and the Auditor-General, as set out in the sources and methodology. Read the methodology