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Of South Africa’s eight metros, only Cape Town was given a clean bill of health by the Auditor-General. Johannesburg, eThekwini and Ekurhuleni received unqualified audits with findings. Buffalo City, Tshwane, Mangaung and Nelson Mandela Bay all received qualified audit opinions with findings.
Only 16% of South Africa’s municipalities can be trusted to spend public funds effectively — and they account for just 19% of the municipal expenditure budget, says Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke.
“The good news is that we are back to 41 clean audits, which is where we started back in 2020-21, so we’re no longer at the 34 that I talked about last year,” Maluleke told MPs in Parliament.
“However, that makes up 16% of the municipalities across the country. That tells you that only 19% of the municipal expenditure budget is being spent by municipalities that will predictably give you the outcomes you hope for, in that they have the disciplines and governance arrangements for you to trust that whatever money you send there will be spent in the way that you expect,” she continued.
Maluleke revealed the dire state of local councils in her 220-page report on the 2023-24 local government audit outcomes, tabled to Parliament’s Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) committee on Wednesday.
Read the full article on the Daily Maverick here.