Cape Town’s PR Spin

GOOD Statement by Suzette Little, GOOD Deputy Secretary-General & City of Cape Town Caucus Chairperson:

A recent internal directive from the City of Cape Town’s Acting City Manager, Gareth Morgan, exposes a troubling truth – a clean audit does not mean clean governance. While the DA-led City has boasted about its annual clean audits from the Auditor-General, an email sent to City employees tells a very different story. The City’s own Ethics and Forensic Services Department has uncovered widespread and deliberate parcelling, also known as artificial splitting, of procurement packages. This practice is used to sidestep competitive bidding processes, and is a direct violation of the City’s Supply Chain Management Policy.

This internal alert highlights a critical governance failure. The City’s own managers admit that some projects are being deliberately structured to evade accountability, oversight, and public scrutiny.

The email details serious ethical and financial risks associated with these practices, including:

• Circumvention of procurement thresholds, undermining transparency;
• Increased risk of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure (UIFW);
• Inflated costs and possible corruption or favouritism;
• Engagement of unqualified contractors and compromised service quality.

These irregularities ultimately translate into higher costs, poorer outcomes, and deepening frustration for communities across Cape Town. Every rand lost to deliberate parcelling or dodgy procurement is a rand stolen from the people, from safer roads, cleaner water, and functional public services.

The City must stop hiding behind its clean audits and admit their faults. A clean audit, as the Auditor-General explains, simply means the City’s financial statements were prepared in accordance with accounting standards and that no material misstatements were found. It does not assess governance integrity, ethical behaviour, or service delivery outcomes.

Cape Town residents deserve a government that not only keeps clean books, but also operates with clean hands. The revelation of systemic parcelling practices proves that behind the polished press statements lies a culture that enables manipulation, evasion, and possibly corruption. Until the City addresses these root governance failures, its “clean audit” claims ring hollow.

GOOD Manifesto on Education: Emphasizing the need for quality education and skills development.

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