Ethical leadership needed to rescue ailing municipalities, says University of Mpumalanga lecturer

The AG Report 2020/21, Municipal Financial Management, has found that about 35% of Mpumalanga’s municipalities are so broke that they may not have the ability to continue functioning in the near future.

A University of Mpumalanga senior lecturer in communication studies, Dr Tshepang Molale, said an empowered and active citizenry is needed to ensure the restoration of trust and citizen-centric accountable and ethical leadership across Mpumalanga municipalities.

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“The 2020/21 report tabled by the Auditor-General of South Africa, Tsakani Maluleke, signals the need for rethinking procedures on public participation, along the lines of allowing for increased citizen power to ensure that municipal officials are held accountable by the public.

“Currently, there are poor citizen centric accountability frameworks in place, thus implying that public participatory processes only serve the interests of a select few. In provinces such as North West and Mpumalanga, the discovery of material irregularities in the use of public funds, amounting to millions of wasteful and irregular expenditure in 13 municipalities, demonstrates a culture of impunity, a lack of accountability, and the failure in legislated processes that should serve as safeguards in the use of public funds. What is worse is that several municipalities in Mpumalanga, according to the Auditor-General, are on the brink of collapse.

“Let us take Dipaleseng, Dr JS Moroka and Govan Mbeki municipalities as examples,” highlighted Molale. “The AG discovered material irregularity at these municipalities, meaning there were instances of ‘non-compliance with or contravention of legislation, fraud, theft or a breach of fiduciary duty’.

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“In accounting and auditing language, material irregularity usually means that the amount was flagged as either irregular or wasteful expenditure is extremely high considering the total budget the municipality has. The situation is so dire that the municipalities are among the 35% in the province that are deemed so broke that they might not be able to continue. Arguably, citizen participation at these municipalities may not have been at an acceptable or derailable standard, hence the absence of strong public accountability mechanisms. From an academic perspective, South Africa is struggling with ways to improve public accountability in local government as a way of fulfilling the envisioned hallmarks of participatory governance and participatory democracy systems across the local government sphere,” said Molale.

“One thing is sure: we need to rethink how power is distributed in local government. Local citizens need to be empowered to directly hold their leaders accountable, because, as noted by the AG, there are indications that some leaders just turn a blind eye on serious cases of material irregularity, while some have just been too slow to act on allegations of corruption, flouting of supply chain regulations and prescripts, fraud, and wasteful and irregular expenditure.”