Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has made an impassioned plea that governance failures at municipal level should be dealt with, in an effort to improve audit outcomes of municipalities.
Maluleke briefed Parliaments Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Portfolio Committee on the 2023-2024 Consolidated General Report on Local Government Audit Outcomes.
She again painted a grim picture, with only 41 out of 257 municipalities getting clean audits and only one Metro out of eight with a clean audit.
Maluleke says without addressing governance failures, improvement will continue to be out of reach.
Weve got to worry about, yes, the administration led by the Municipal Manager, but weve got to equally worry about the Mayor and the Speaker and the Council. If we do that, then well have some hope of building the capability we need, whether its skills, competence, ethics. Well only build those things if we sort out the governance arrangements. If we dont deal with governance, well never be able to sort out accountability and consequence management.