As the country gears up for this year’s highly anticipated municipal elections, auditor-general (AG) Tsakani Maluleke has warned that public confidence in the local government system is on the wane.
Deeply concerning is how senior public officials at municipal level, including mayors, council speakers and city managers, are prone to “trivialising the rule of law” by flouting procurement laws, rules and regulations.
Maluleke was speaking in Cape Town at the annual conference of the FW de Klerk Foundation, which focused on “chances and challenges for municipalities” ahead of the 2026 local government elections.
In a hard-hitting address, Maluleke told the gathering, attended by other high-powered delegates such as Cogta minister Velenkosini Hlabisa and public protector advocate Kholeka Gcaleka, that based on her annual municipal audit, citizens were not wrong to lose confidence in the municipal governance system.
“Where municipalities are dysfunctional, there’s capital flight. When capital flight happens, jobs are lost, revenue does not come into the local government system, then the local government system in that locality continues to decline,” said Maluleke.
“Far too many municipalities are simply not delivering as expected, and service delivery failure, instability in council and financial administration, and disregard for the law have widened the trust deficit between those elected and those who elect them. Local government now faces greater challenges to regain the trust of South Africans amid a shrinking revenue base and rising demand for services.”
Where the rule of law is trivialised, you end up with controls that are not fixed. You end up with ongoing control of people that are operating outside the rules.
— Tsakani Maluleke, auditor-general
Municipal audit outcomes have been on the decline for the past 10 years and “not telling a very inspiring story”, with only 47 municipalities out of 257 obtaining clean audits.
The first woman to helm the Auditor-General’s Office said this was due to the poor attitudes and competence of municipal leaders at political and administrative levels.
“And many of the troubles are about compliance, especially compliance with procurement legislation. Section 217 of the constitution provides principles on how public procurement should run.
“Where the rule of law is trivialised, you end up with controls that are not fixed. You end up with ongoing control of people that are operating outside the rules.”
With new mayors and other such officials likely to take charge after the local government elections later this year, Maluleke implored parties to appoint strong, qualified and competent people to lead municipalities.
“It’s the quality of people that are deployed and how they are being held accountable or not. And it’s the attention that all of us are paying to this space.
“Somebody asked the other, ‘Why must we worry about audits? You tell the same thing every year.’ My team and I firmly believe that behind every audit outcome, it’s a community that experiences interruptions in service, whether it’s water supply, malfunctioning infrastructure or even stalled development.”
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