With a R69bn budget in 2021/2022, the City of Joburg is the biggest and richest of SA's municipalities. On paper, it should be a cosmopolitan utopia providing reliable and decent services to its almost 6-million inhabitants. These include a reliable electricity supply (outside of Eskom load-shedding), constant water provision, refuse removal, efficient public transport, smooth roads, traffic lights that work, safe streets, effective use of all spaces - including green spaces - and continuous urban development that attracts investment and creates jobs.
Instead, the city is slowly falling apart. Electricity interruptions have become a common occurrence; residents are lucky to enjoy an entire week's uninterrupted water supply; piles of rubbish lie uncollected in the inner city and adjoining areas; public transport is often unreliable and unsafe; the roads are full of potholes; traffic lights hardly ever work; the streets of the city and its suburbs are not safe; open spaces get hijacked by those who profit from creating illegal informal settlements; and the city's poor investment in urban development is chasing away investors.
But Johannesburg is not alone in this decay and poor administration. Municipalities are failing across the country, unable to provide basic services, unable to account for funds they are in charge of, recklessly spending on frivolous items.
Briefing parliament on the 2019/2020 municipal audit outcomes, auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke reported R26bn in irregular expenditure across local government. Despite relying on consultants to compensate for their lack of financial management skills, she found that most municipalities were failing in the basics. Only 27 of 257 received clean audits. Alarmingly, the audits of 57 municipalities could not be completed because Maluleke could not find sufficient documentation to support expenditure, as required by law.
This report makes for grim reading. Local government is at the coalface of delivery, and when it fails it has the biggest impact on people, especially those who cannot afford to outsource the services it provides.
As we head towards the local government elections, we must think hard about which parties, organisations or individuals we mark our cross next to. These choices will have a direct impact on our lives for the next five years.
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