Hlabisa questions abilities of local government leaders as AG report shows no improvement in municipalities

Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa, said national government needs to step in and help the 10 worst municipalities in the country.

Hlabisa was speaking after Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke presented the 2022/23 local government audit outcomes to the Portfolio Committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs on Tuesday.

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Hlabisa said the 10 worst-performing municipalities came from the Eastern Cape, the Free State, and the Northern Cape.

“We will be very focused on these municipalities in these provinces. That is where the point of co-ordination and co-operation will have to come into play,” he said.

Performance of municipalities has not improved

According to the AG’s report, only 13% of municipalities received clean audits between 2022 and 2023. The Western Cape is the province with the most well-run municipalities.

Maluleke said there is little evidence of improvement in local government.

She said only 34 (13%) municipalities obtained clean audits.

“Meaningful improvement over the term of the new administration was not evident, while 45 municipalities have improved their audit outcomes since 2020-21, 36 have regressed,” Maluleke said.

Skills audit and professionalisation

Hlabisa said in the next 21 days government will do a skills audit in these municipalities, starting with the municipal managers. It will also look at those in political office, such as the mayors and the speakers.

“We will need to know who is there, what are the qualifications of the municipal managers, just to understand, because if you make the wrong deployment, you will hardly get the correct product,” he said.

“You might find the CFO not meeting the minimum requirement of that position, but the council [still] appointed them.”

He said that if the leaders of the municipalities are not qualified for the roles they perform, “things will go upside down”.

He added that political parties need to take responsibility for deploying people to these positions.

“If you deploy a person who is not competent enough to lead a municipality… you will never see a change.

“You can come with a turnaround plan, they might not comprehend it because of the level of their qualifications.”

Maladministration

He said Maluti-a-Phofung in the Free State was one of the worst municipalities. The municipality has not submitted financial statements for more than three years.

Hlabisa also said he was concerned about uMkhanyakude Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, which has been under administration for 10 years.

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eThekwini Municipality was also experiencing problems that led to the intervention of national government.

Consultants in municipalities

Meanwhile, Hlabisa said he was also concerned about the use of consultants in municipalities.

According to the AG’s report, consultants are being used unnecessarily in some municipalities, especially in putting together the municipalities’ financial statements. He said Limpopo uses consultants the most.

“The issue of consultants will come with a very informed recommendation as to how we go forward with this matter,” he said.