Cllr Godwin Ratikwane
Chairperson of the Section 79 Municipal Public Accounts Committee photo supplied
By Cllr Godwin Ratikwane (EFF)
Chairperson of the Section 79 Municipal Public Accounts Committee
The Municipal Public Accounts (MPAC) Chairperson, Cllr Godwin Ratikwane, in
MPAC meeting held on the 19th of September 2025, raised serious concerns on the quality of the reports prepared and presented by the senior officials of the city from various departments.
The committee have raised these concerns in different meetings of MPAC with the hope that the situation will ultimately change but it seems like a trend
that continues repeating itself in all Meetings of the committee.
When emphasizing his point the chairperson used a report from the department of electricity as an example which was, in the last meeting of the committee held on the 22nd of August, referred back to be redrafted in an acceptable manner, but however
the report came to the committee meeting of the 19th of September with more errors than the previous one which was presented.
The poor quality of report in the city of Tshwane has been flagged by the Auditor general of South African in the city’s audit findings for the 2023/2024 annual audit report.
“The AG has flagged, the issue of reports, weather is reports on financials or report on basic issues, we are literally as committee having to solicit or have to tell the senior members that this is how you should structure a table when you present a report on MPAC,” said the chairperson.
The chairperson further cautioned the City Manager that if he is not going
to address the current challenge of poor reports on basic reports, the city
will continue to present the bad reports on complicated reports like those
of forensic and investigative reports.
There is an overall bad performance highlighted in the AG’s reports and the committee further indicated that this trend of bad performance on reports will reflect bad on the City Manager if he then does not address the challenge with regards to qualify of report presented to the committee and ultimately to council.
The city manager has been mandated to address the issue of quality of reporting within different departments of the city and the committee is expecting to see an improved quality of reporting in the near future.