Not a single South African metro achieved a clean audit
Not a single South African metro achieved a clean audit despite managing 54% of local government expenditure and serving millions of South Africans.
This was revealed in the Auditor-General’s 2024/25 local government audit outcomes, which showed that South Africa’s municipal crisis remains entrenched.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) sounded the alarm about the poor governance in South Africa’s largest cities.
The Auditor-General’s 2024/25 local government audit outcomes showed that more municipalities submitted financial statements on time.
However, it cautions that these improvements should not be mistaken for a healthy local government system.
“The most concerning finding is that not a single metropolitan municipality achieved a clean audit,” said Julius Kleynhans, executive manager at Outa.
“This happened despite metros accounting for 54% of total local government expenditure and providing services to millions of South Africans.”
The Auditor-General’s report noted that metro audit outcomes continued to regress during 2024/25.
This reflects a failure to establish sound financial management, accountability, transparency, and institutional integrity.
“Residents are paying more every year for rates, taxes, electricity, water, sanitation, and refuse collection,” Kleynhans said.
“However, residents continue to face failing infrastructure, sewage spills, water losses, potholes, electricity outages, and declining municipal services.”
Kleynhans said that anything short of a clean audit points to weaknesses in governance, compliance, financial management, or performance reporting.
Apart from the poor audit outcomes, there is also a concern that 225 municipalities spent approximately R1.61 billion on financial reporting consultants.
A decade ago, 179 municipalities spent about R590 million on similar services. This shows a big decline in in-house skills.
“This raises serious questions about the capacity and professionalism of municipal administrations,” said Kleynhans.
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Is this article accurate as there are W Cape metros with clean audits and Midvaal in Gauteng! The article does not include key facts and should not have been published.