Things are WRONG in the major Metro municipalities in this country as none of them have received a good report and there are also things that need to be fixed in terms of spending money. The Municipality of Thekwini is one of the municipalities that it turns out that after 10 years, it receives a financial report with things that need to be fixed.
The Auditor General, Ms. Tsakane Maluleke, told the committee of the Department of Co-operative Governance and Indigenous Affairs in Parliament yesterday that the Municipality of Thekwini has been receiving a report for years with things that need to be corrected.
“There continues to be non-compliance with the policies affecting the procurement of goods in Durban. There is no joint operation of different departments in this municipality. The money is not being used properly, which has caused a delay in the completion of the council’s plans. This is delaying the preparation and delivery of important needs to the people,” he said while presenting the report on the financial performance of the local municipalities, for the fiscal year that ended in June last year.
He said that the contractors are doing unsatisfactory work and said that the council members are bringing reports about the financial performance.
“There is no Metro municipality that has received a good report that does not contain some things that need to be fixed. Of the 257 municipalities in the country, 117 of them have received a report that requires some things to be fixed,” he said.
He said that 110 municipalities have received reports regarding the non-compliance of the rules set for the operation of money. There are no plans to discipline officials who mishandle municipal funds.”
He pointed out that there are 39 municipalities that received a good financial performance report. The Western Cape has 21 municipalities that received a good financial performance report. There are 8 in the Eastern Cape, four in KZN and two in Gauteng and Limpopo each province. In Mpumalanga and Northern Cape, one province each received this report. In the Free State and the North West it was closed with a tree as not a single municipality received a good report.
He complained about the problem that municipalities have been complaining about for years using consultants to make financial reports.
“This is the old problem of municipalities using consultants when making financial statements. In 2024/2025, there are 225 municipalities that used consultants at a cost of R1.6 billion. The problem we found is that the employees of the municipalities do not have the skills to make financial statements. This problem is getting worse as the number of municipalities that continue to use consultants is increasing,” he said and said that they are worried about this.
He said the councils must be able to have people who will do this work because it is not difficult.
“We tasked our researchers to look into why these councils continue to receive negative reports when they use consultants every year. It turns out that there is no plan to reduce the use of consultants in these councils.”
He also revealed that there are 62 municipalities in financial trouble, four in KZN. In the province, he counted Mpofana, Okhahlamba, Ugu and Thukela Municipalities.