AG REPORT CONFIRMS ADMINISTRATION FAILURES BY DA AND CILLIERS BRINK
By Sarah Mabotsa
GOOD City of Tshwane Councillor
Given the regressed audit outcomes and findings of the Auditor General, the GOOD Party is further reassured of our 2024 decision to support a leadership change in the City of Tshwane.
Today the Auditor General’s (AG) report for the City of Tshwane for the 2023/24 financial year was tabled in Council.
This AG report audits the City of Tshwane’s performance from July 2023 until June 2024 and provides independent, impartial evidence of the DA’s record of financial and governance status of our city during this time.
It is deeply disappointing that the AG determined that the status of financial governance was so poor for this period that a further qualified audit opinion was lodged against the administration of the former DA Mayor, Cilliers Brink.
Not only is this disappointing for the DA leadership that represented the city during that year, but multiple adverse audit findings impact the capital city’s ability to instil confidence in investors, businesses and residents.
The AG found “overall stagnation” and the outcome of the audit was testament to an ineffective action plan being implemented by the DA’s administration. More than R2,1 billion of unauthorised expenditure was reported and a balance of around R15,5 billion in irregular expenditure was reported, although the AGSA noted that the city does “not have an adequate system for identifying and disclosing all irregular expenditure”.
Of particular concern are the following:
• That unauthorised expenditure increased to a massive R2,1 billion, up from R423 million the previous year;
• That only 15% – less than one in six – of reported pothole complaints were resolved within the standard municipal response time;
• That less than half of water callouts are responded to within 48 hours; and
• That, although a target of just 550 metres of new sewerage pipes was set for the 2023/24 year, not even one single metre of new sewerage pipeline was installed during the July 2023 to June 2024 period.
In September 2024, GOOD supported the election of Dr Nasiphi Moya as the new Executive Mayor. Dr Moya has established a multi-party coalition of parties, of which GOOD is one, to drive change and instil a more responsive, equitable and fiscally sound service delivery system in the city.
Within 100 days these changes, I am pleased to note, are already starting to yield results for the City of Tshwane. Many residents are noticing the improved state of the inner city.
Our new leadership team has been visiting communities across the metro to insist that residents pay their outstanding rates and comply with relevant city bylaws.
Those with illegal electricity connections face the consequences of being cut off and having their businesses closed.
We have also engaged with Eskom to reach a payment deal on the almost R7 billion debt that the metro owes Eskom.
Municipalities not paying their debts to Eskom is a key cause of rising electricity costs in South Africa, so Tshwane’s non-payment is an issue that affects the entire country.
I am confident that, come next year, GOOD as part of the multi-party leadership governance in Tshwane, will be able to report some significant improvements in service delivery and fiscal stability of the City of Tshwane.
To the residents of Tshwane, I say thank you, baie dankie and kea leboga for their trust and support as we work, together, to grow our economy and make the lives of all our residents better.
Meanwhile, former City of Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink responded as follows the current mayor of Tshwane was my deputy mayor. For the last 8 of my 18-month term of office she was part of our administration.
For a Mafikizolo party like Good to accuse us of failure while serving under the current mayor makes them look ridiculous.
During my time in office, we improved from an adverse to a qualified audit and cleared the majority of multi-year material irregularities.
We did so by bringing in a new CFO and stringently monitoring the audit at Mayoral Committee level.
It would seem that after our removal from office in September last year, these tracking meetings stopped completely.
The municipal public accounts committee has also not had an ordinary meeting since it elected an EFF chairperson.
What is important is that city manager Johann Mettler receives the full backing of the political leadership when he has to take action against implicated officials.
Given the attacks on Mettler by the EFF, and the forced resignation of one of his deputies, we have serious concerns about the prospects of good governance in Tshwane.