JOHANNESBURG, GAUTENG — The escalating crisis of financial discipline failures within Gauteng municipalities has resulted in a staggering R14.4 billion in irregular expenditure, sparking urgent demands for systemic reform and accountability. According to the latest audit outcomes tabled by the Auditor-General, the province’s financial mismanagement has more than doubled from R6.61 billion over the past four to five years, highlighting a deepening governance crisis.
Funzi Ngobeni, the Gauteng Provincial Chairperson of ActionSA, weighed in on the alarming findings, welcoming the provincial Finance MEC for openly addressing the Auditor-General’s reports. Ngobeni noted that while the audits reflect the previous financial year and longstanding systemic issues rather than the current administration’s sole doing, the true test for the MEC will be the implementation of corrective interventions.
The audit revealed significant regressions in key metropolitan areas. The City of Johannesburg recorded 11 material irregularities, while Ekurhuleni reported three, though the latter has contested some of the Auditor-General’s findings. Ngobeni agreed with the MEC’s diagnosis of the crisis, pointing to weak financial controls, poor procurement processes, and a severe lack of consequence management as the primary drivers of the irregular expenditure.
“We cannot be talking about the same officials being found wanting year after year and nothing happens to them,” Ngobeni stated, emphasizing that consequence management is the critical missing link required to turn the tide in the new financial year.
The financial mismanagement extends far beyond accounting discrepancies, manifesting in severe service delivery failures that directly impact residents. Ngobeni highlighted the tangible costs of these audit outcomes, pointing to unmaintained infrastructure, persistent potholes, dry taps, and escalating community protests. In some local municipalities, frustrated residents have resorted to burning tires and even the houses of mayors, signaling a boiling point for service delivery grievances.
Addressing the political climate, Ngobeni criticized the tendency for Auditor-General findings to be contested or downplayed in the “hurly-burly” of politics. He cited instances where the dire state of municipal finances in Johannesburg was acknowledged one day and denied the next. Ngobeni insisted that while political debates are inevitable, the remedial actions proposed by the Auditor-General must be implemented without debate. He urged the Auditor-General’s office to utilize its powers to act against officials who fail to execute their duties.
To combat the poor quality of financial reporting, the provincial Finance MEC, MEC Nkululeko Dunga, has proposed an intervention program that includes an Annual Financial Statements (AFS) accelerator. This program mandates the submission of interim financial statements to ensure better oversight and address concerns over the quality of delivered financial reports.
ActionSA supports the AFS accelerator but has proposed a crucial modification: the intervention must be public-facing. Ngobeni advocated for a transparent, publicly accessible tracker that clearly identifies which officials are failing to perform their duties, who is ignoring the Auditor-General’s remedial actions, and what interventions the provincial treasury is applying.
“It should not just be a tracker; it must be a tracker that all of us can be able to monitor and follow whether the right things are being done to ensure municipalities get back to order,” Ngobeni concluded, stressing that public visibility is essential for restoring financial discipline in the province.
