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South Africans who were following the release of the 2020/21 audit outcomes for municipalities by the Auditor-General could be forgiven for rolling their eyes and sighing: “Here we go again!”
That familiar picture of dysfunction, gross waste and unbelievable lack of caring we have seen year after year was once more laid bare. The details of Tsakani Maluleke’s report, captured elsewhere in these pages, make you want to say a silent prayer for her and her staff.
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We concur with Maluleke when she states that “the lack of improvement in municipal outcomes is an indictment on the entire local government accountability ecosystem, which failed to act and arrest the decline that continued to be characterised by service delivery challenges”.
As she and her predecessors have done in the past, Maluleke threw down the gauntlet to the political leadership to take responsibility for turning things around. She threw a particular challenge to councils that were elected in November to take an active interest in putting paid to the bad practices of the past.
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Because most of these councils are run by a political party that is dysfunctional and has a rotten culture, it is hard to see how bad practices can be tackled head-on.
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Rather, the best bet for improvement in performance and accountability is coercion. The extended powers granted to the Auditor-General by the 2019 amendment to the Public Audit Act are beginning to bear fruit. These powers, which enable the office to enforce action if “material irregularities” are found, have seen a modest uptick in municipalities acting on Maluleke’s findings and recommendations. It is modest, but it’s a start.
This sjambok must be wielded with more vigour, and the national political leadership needs to visibly, audibly and practically support Maluleke and her team in this endeavour.
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