The City of Johannesburg has launched Project Lokisa, a sweeping new initiative aimed at recovering outstanding municipal debt, especially from the city’s largest and most persistent defaulters.
The campaign—named after the Sesotho word “Lokisa”, meaning “to fix” or “sort out” – marks a radical shift in the city’s approach to financial sustainability and revenue collection.
At the core of Project Lokisa is a large-scale disconnection drive focused on households, businesses, and entities that owe significant amounts for electricity, water, and other municipal services. The city will also crack down on illegal utility connections and increase monitoring of the effects of service disconnections.
Malope Ramagaga, the City’s acting group head for Revenue and Shared Services said Project Lokisa will include the implementation of a large-scale disconnection operations across the City targeting mostly worst defaulters, with the intense focus on illegal connections and the constant monitoring of disconnection impact on customers.
Ramagaga stated that Project Lokisa will take a hard line stance against:
-High-consumption electricity and water users with properties valued over R100 million
-Residential properties worth more than R5 million
-Commercial businesses
-Government departments and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)
A key part of the reform includes changes to the process of issuing municipal Clearance Certificates – a required document for property sales. Under the new system, the City will ensure that outstanding municipal debts are settled before any property transaction can proceed.
According to Ramagaga, under Project Lokisa, the City will introduce changes with regards to the process of issuing Clearance Certificates when the seller sells their property. This is another intervention to ensure that the City does not lose money owed for municipal services by the seller, when they finally put their property on sale.
“A Clearance Certificate will be provided to the transferring attorney and the customer with a notice of the total amount owing above 90 days. Attorneys will be given notice to sign an Acknowledgment of Debt (AOD), which will authorize direct payment to the City from the sale proceeds.”
This policy is designed to prevent residents and companies from offloading properties while leaving unpaid bills behind—a common loophole the City says it can no longer afford to overlook.
In addition to aggressive debt collection, the City will focus on preventing revenue losses from theft via illegal power and water connections—an issue that has drained city finances for years.
The City of Johannesburg is dealing with mounting service delivery challenges, in part due to billions lost annually in unpaid accounts. With Project Lokisa, officials hope to not only stabilize municipal finances but also send a strong message to habitual defaulters.
The campaign is part of a broader effort to reform revenue systems, plug financial leaks, and ensure that paying customers are no longer subsidizing those who evade their obligations.