Audit chief's same old sorry story

When presenting her latest report on the audit performance of municipalities in parliament this week, auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke said she had begun to “sound like a stuck record”. The sentiment should not have surprised her audience, both in parliament and outside it.

And she may as well have been speaking for her many predecessors, whose recommendations made little difference in influencing municipal governance for the better. Despite her own previous findings and remedial recommendations, she has found that the dire picture of how our municipalities are managed has hardly changed.

What is parliament, and the cabinet, going to do to eradicate the rot in local government, which ultimately affects citizens’ quality of life and the economy? 

In her 2023/24 local government audit report, Maluleke revealed that the pattern of poor audit outcomes in that sphere of government has continued. For instance, only 41 of the 257 councils received clean audits. As many as 71 failed to submit financial statements of acceptable quality. Even the metros were found to be afflicted by the malaise. Only one, Cape Town, got a clean audit. 

The poor state of governance was found to correlate to the perilous financial situation of many of the councils, which are sinking deeper into debt as they resort to approving unfunded projects. In addition, their penury has undermined their ability to pay important suppliers such as Eskom and the water boards. 

The culpability for this sorry state of affairs sits not only with the councils but also with political leaders who have apparently abdicated their statutory oversight duty, including, as Maluleke noted, Cogta MECs and provincial legislatures. 

The question is, having heard the same story for the umpteenth time, what is parliament, and the cabinet, going to do to eradicate the rot in local government, which ultimately affects citizens’ quality of life and the economy?