Helen Nonhlanhla Makhuba

Attendance

Present

61

Leave of absence

4

Absent without leave

0

Arrived late

6

Left early

2

Reasons given for leave: Private business (4).

"Absent without leave" means the signed minutes of a meeting held while they were on council neither list them as present nor excuse them, and no similar name appears that day, so misspellings in the minutes don't count against anyone. Each square links to the minutes.

In the chamber

From the 10 sittings transcribed so far in their term. Times are approximate, to the nearest transcript line.

Not present when called

0

Times given the floor

5

Average wait to start

46 s

Average greetings first

6 s

Apology or leave of absence (2)

• 26 Aug 2026 · 00:38:45Private business. IFP early departure at 15:00. sitting
• 22 Jul 2026 · 05:33:06Leaving early. Cllr Makhuba tells the house at 05:33:26 that the whole IFP caucus leaves at 3:30. sitting

In their words

Every time the chair gave them the floor in a transcribed sitting (5), newest first. The words are the AI transcript of that stretch of the livestream (Argon), so they can include the chair or an interjection; the time link is the place to check.

• 27 Aug 2026 · 00:11:24Applications for leave of absence · 20 s

  Read what they said (35 words)

  Uh greetings, Speaker. For the IFP, we have uh MMC Mabaso, party business out of the province, uh we have um Councilor Dalcy Manganyi, ill health, and we have Councilor Nyembe, ill health. Thank you.

• 26 Aug 2026 · 00:38:45Applications for leave of absence · 44 s

  Read what they said (60 words)

  Thank you, Speaker. Greetings. And for the IFP we have early departures. It's Councillor Nyembe at 2:00 PM, doctor's appointment; Councillor Nkomo and Councillor Khanyile at 4:00 PM, party work; Councillor Makhuba at 3:00 PM, private business; and also there's an apology from um

  Councillor Manganyi on behalf of the minority parties, that will not be in the meeting today.

• 22 Jul 2026 · 05:33:26Procedural remark on IFP leaving at 3:30 · 10 s

  Read what they said (29 words)

  Thank you, Speaker. As you can remember that in the morning, we did ask to leave at 3:30. So, the whole caucus of the IFP is leaving at 3:30.

• 28 May 2026 · 01:47:52Item 3: debate on the budget speech · 6 min 8 s

  Read what they said (741 words)

  Madam Speaker, the Executive Mayor, Deputy Executive Mayor, all protocols observed.

  Inkatha Freedom Party rises to participate in this important budget debate, and we wish to extend our acknowledgment to the MMC for Finance, Councillor Loyiso Masuku, for tabling the City of Johannesburg's budget before this house yesterday.

  A budget is not merely a financial document.

  It is a declaration of priorities, a statement of values, and above all, a promise to the people of this great city.

  And it is in that spirit that the IFP engages with this budget constructively, honestly, and with the residents of Johannesburg firmly at heart.

  Madam Speaker, the IFP is deeply concerned about the overall state of the city's financial management.

  Sound financial governance is the backbone of service delivery, and when that backbone weakens, it is the ordinary residents of Johannesburg, those in Soweto, Alexandra, Diepsloot, and Orange Farm, who bear the brunt of that failure.

  We therefore call on the city's administration to treat financial discipline not as a bureaucratic exercise, but as a moral obligation to the people it serves.

  On the matter of the debtors' book, Madam Speaker, we are alarmed by the continued growth of the city's debtors' book year after year.

  This house is presented with figures that show an ever-increasing backlog of outstanding debt, and yet the collection performance by the city remains, by all accounts, inadequate.

  We must ask the difficult questions: What is the city's concrete plan to address the collection challenge going forward?

  It is not enough to simply record debt; the city must actively pursue it.

  This means deploying skilled revenue collection officials, implementing consequence management where negligence is found, and ensuring that billing systems are accurate because we know, and it was even acknowledged, that inaccurate billing drives non-payment.

  The residents who do pay their bills deserve a city that collects efficiently and fairly.

  Madam Speaker, the IFP is troubled by the city's recurring pattern of being penalized due to non-compliance on conditional grants.

  These are funds allocated by National Treasury for specific developmental purposes, and when the city fails to comply with the reporting requirements, with implementation timelines, or with procurement prescripts, those funds are clawed back or withheld.

  What compounds this problem is the poor performance on grant-funded projects.

  We have projects that exist on paper, budgets that are allocated but not spent, and communities that continue to wait for infrastructure and services that were promised years ago.

  Madam Speaker, this is unacceptable.

  The City of Johannesburg cannot afford to leave money on the table, not when we have infrastructure backlog, not when we have communities without reliable water, electricity, and sanitation.

  We call on the administration to urgently strengthen its project management capacity, its compliance units, and its grant monitoring system so that every rand on conditional funding is utilized effectively and accountably.

  We are duty-bound to build the city's financial capacity.

  The City of Johannesburg cannot continue to rely indefinitely on conditional grants from national government to fund its infrastructure backlog.

  Conditional grants are, as the word implies, conditional.

  They come with strings, with timelines, with compliance requirements, and as we have just noted, the city struggles to meet those conditions consistently.

  It is therefore imperative that Johannesburg builds its own financial capacity.

  This means growing its own revenue base, improving its credit standing, exploring alternative financing mechanisms, and making prudent investment decisions that generate long-term returns.

  A city of Johannesburg's stature, the economic heartbeat of the African continent, should not be in a position of perpetual financial dependency.

  We must invest in our own fiscal strength so that we can fund infrastructure not only when grants are available, but because we have built the capacity to do so ourselves.

  Madam Speaker, the IFP wishes to place on record its deep concern regarding the financial crisis facing the Public Safety Department.

  A crisis that has its roots in a decision that was, quite frankly, poorly planned and inadequately budgeted for.

  40 seconds.

  The insourcing of security personnel, while perhaps well-intentioned in principle, was implemented without the necessary financial groundwork.

  And as a result, Public Safety is now saddled with a recurring deficit on employee-related costs, a deficit that grows with each financial year and threatens to destabilize an already stretched portfolio.

  The IFP therefore makes an urgent plea to MMC for Finance to please look into concrete ways of assisting the Public Safety portfolio, whether through budget reallocation,

• 28 May 2026 · 00:42:09Leave of absence applications · 6 s

  Read what they said (11 words)

  Thank you, Speaker. For the IFP, it's Councillor Nyembe, ill health.

Spoke on

• 22 Jul 2026 · 00:46:25Applications for leave of absence
• 22 Jul 2026 · 05:31:08Quorum count and late arrivals
• 25 Jun 2026 · 06:53:50Whippery break to cluster items and agreement on elevated items
• 28 May 2026 · 00:36:41Welcome, quorum and applications for leave of absence
• 28 May 2026 · 01:47:45IFP's Cllr Makhuba on financial management and Public Safety
• 26 May 2026 · 00:12:30Applications for leave of absence