The findings of the audit report on South African municipalities that the Auditor-General (AG), Kimi Makwetu, released in Parliament on Wednesday show that municipalities are not negatively affected by the global economy or by insufficient municipal legislation, as the ANC would have us believe, but by the very same ANC government’s mismanagement, skewed priorities and abuse of power.
This morning, the AG confirmed that South African municipalities find themselves in a dark place with nationwide irregular expenditure that increased to R28,3 billion (from R16,2 billion in 2015/2016).
According to the National Treasury, 128 municipalities across the country are in a serious financial crisis while only 7% of municipalities received clean audits.
Clearly municipal officials consider financial legislation to be mere guidelines and the ANC’s failure to take the necessary action against officials that transgress contributes to the extreme increase in irregular expenditure every year, which in turn, leads to the loss of vast sums of much-needed money.
As long as punitive measures are not implemented, officials will not become financially responsible and municipalities will not improve.
The municipal audit outcomes clearly show that under the ANC’s leadership, local government is not sustainable. Under the ANC, the financial survival of municipalities is in jeopardy with unauthorised expenditure (overspending) increasing drastically every year because the income stream has become smaller and smaller.
The AG’s report confirms that the ANC’s policy of nepotism is quickly catching up with them.
Municipalities that are supposed to be the heartbeat of South Africa are running on empty due to corruption, poor financial management and incompetent officials.
On top of that, municipal managements often snub paying residents while they expect these residents to keep paying for poor to no service delivery.
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