{"id":650813,"date":"2026-05-29T11:02:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T09:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=650813"},"modified":"2026-05-29T11:05:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T09:05:32","slug":"south-africas-richest-city-lost-r3-5-million-when-airtime-and-data-loaded-onto-sim-cards-went-to-waste-it-decided-to-get-the-money-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/650813-south-africas-richest-city-lost-r3-5-million-when-airtime-and-data-loaded-onto-sim-cards-went-to-waste-it-decided-to-get-the-money-back.html","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s richest city lost R3.5 million when airtime and data loaded onto SIM cards went to waste. It decided to get the money back."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The City of Johannesburg lost R3.5 million due to wasted airtime and data loaded onto SIM cards, and then stopped paying the service provider to make back the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was revealed in the City of Johannesburg’s 2024\/25 Integrated Annual Report, which provided an update on the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debacle began in 2019, when the city paid for airtime and data loaded onto SIM cards that were never used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Resources of the municipality were not used economically, as airtime and data loaded on SIM cards were not used between April 2019 and August 2019,” the report stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual report explained that using the resources the city pays for is required by section 62(1)(a) of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The municipality is likely to suffer a material financial loss if the amount paid for airtime and data loaded on SIM cards is not recovered,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The financial loss was disclosed in the City of Johannesburg’s separate financial statements for the period ended 30 June 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The accounting officer was notified of the material irregularity on 5 August 2022,” the city said in its report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accounting officer launched an investigation in September 2022 to determine the officials responsible, which was expected to be finalised in December 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, due to new information emerging in the case, the investigation was not finalised until July 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation concluded that the municipality suffered a financial loss of R3.467 million due to the unused airtime and data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accounting officer recommended that any acts of financial misconduct be reported to the council, where applicable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Johannesburg fights to get the money back<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In April 2024, the municipal public accounts committee recommended to the council that the financial loss should be recovered from the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In assessing the possibility of recovering the financial loss, the accounting officer obtained a legal opinion in June 2024,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This legal opinion confirmed that the municipality has reasonable prospects of success in pursuing a contractual claim against the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2024, the City of Johannesburg council approved the resolution to recover the financial loss suffered from the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An independent service provider was appointed in August 2024 to investigate whether there were any elements of financial misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outcome of the preliminary investigation, finalised in November 2024, indicated that there were elements of financial misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was recommended that a full investigation be conducted to determine the appropriate consequence management to be taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A letter of demand was issued to the service provider in October 2024, and the service provider responded in November 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service provider indicated that it does not accept responsibility for the financial loss suffered by the City of Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summons were issued to the service provider in November 2024. However, the accounting officer realised that the legal costs would be too high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The accounting officer decided against pursuing the legal process but opted not to pay invoices due to the service provider,” the city said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accounting officer stopped the processing of invoices submitted by the service provider from February 2025 to offset the R3.4 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He instructed the attorney to formally notify the service provider that the city would not process its invoices, including the reasons for this decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service provider was notified that the municipality would not process its invoices due to a dispute with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As at 21 March 2025, invoices amounting to R4.3 million submitted by the services provider remain unpaid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City of Johannesburg lost R3.5 million due to wasted airtime and data loaded onto SIM cards, and then stopped paying the service provider to make back the money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":650815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,18668],"tags":[30262],"class_list":["post-650813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","category-government","tag-city-of-johannesburg-coj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650813"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650827,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650813\/revisions\/650827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}