Cabinet encouraged by plans to assist municipalities

Cabinet is encouraged that the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the Auditor-General South Africa (AGSA) continue to support and implement initiatives aimed at consolidating the improvements recorded in some municipalities.

“The department has also prioritised assisting the worst-performing municipalities in the country by improving the competency of personnel through training and skills transfer, as well as enforcing regulations on minimum standards for municipal managers and senior officials,” the Acting Minister in the Presidency, Maropene Ramokgopa, said on Thursday. 

The Minister was addressing the media on Thursday on the outcomes of the Cabinet meeting held yesterday.

This is after the AGSA report on the audit outcomes of municipalities for the 2022/23 financial showed gradual improvement in financial management within some municipalities.

“Nevertheless, there remains more work to be done to improve compliance across many municipalities that continue to receive negative audit outcomes.” 

The Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke briefed the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs on the audit outcomes of municipalities for the past financial year. 

Maluleke revealed the unauthorised expenditure of R24 billion, with only one metro achieving a clean audit.

The AGSA report shows only 34 of 257 metropolitan, district and local municipalities received clean audit outcomes.

The Minister said the number of disclaimed audits decreased while 45 municipalities improved their audit outcomes since 2020/21 and those that submitted their financial statements on time improved from some 81% in 2020/21 to 94% in 2022/23.

In a statement released in August, the department said it will support municipalities to implement and maintain effective systems in governance, financial management, performance management, infrastructure, service delivery and compliance with local government legislation and related prescripts.

It also touched on coalition governance and vowed to address governance challenges and instability in hung councils. 

The department has developed the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill also known as the Coalitions Bill, which has been published for public comment. 

The bill aims to provide a legislative framework for the formation and management of coalition governments. – SAnews.gov.za