Political instability in metros directly impacts financial performance - AG Maluleke

CAPE TOWN - Auditor General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke says the political instability that plagues many metropolitan municipalities has had a direct impact on their poor financial performance.

Only the City of Cape Town has managed to achieve a clean audit outcome for the 2022/23 financial year, its second consecutive one.

Collectively managing almost R300 billion, the country’s eight metros have largely regressed in their audit opinions.

Maluleke on Tuesday told Parliament the audit opinions could also be linked to their service delivery output.

The metros of Johannesburg, eThekwini and Nelson Mandela Bay have achieved marginal improvements in their audit outcome over the last financial year from qualified to unqualified audit opinions.

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However, Ekurhuleni has regressed from a clean audit to unqualified with findings, largely due to procurement issues.

Mangaung, Buffalo City and Tshwane have, however, received qualified audits, with Tshwane having improved from adverse findings in the previous year.

Maluleke said no major improvements in financial administration had been witnessed since the new administration was elected in 2021.

“The political instability that often confronts the administration of metros has the direct impact of weakening those institutions.”

She said the security of tenure of municipal managers and chief financial officers also has an impact on audit findings.

“Those two roles are often unstable when there’s political instability at council level. There’s such instability that they never really become au fait with what it is they are supposed to do.”

Maluleke said 75% of metros have also been unable to produce reliable service delivery reports.