A record of nine South African municipalities have failed to submit their financial statement to be audited by the Auditor-General (AG) as required by the law.
This means that these municipalities’ finances would not be verified as to whether the money was actually spent correctly.
Among the municipalities that have failed to submit the statement is Msunduzi in kwaZulu-Natal, which includes the town of Pietermaritzburg, the capital city of the province. The same municipality was recently flagged by the KwaZulu-Natal Treasury for tabling an unfunded budget for the 2025-2026 period and instructed to revise it.
The other municipalities are Kopanong Local Municipality, Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality, Mafube Local Municipality, Matjhabeng Local Municipality, Mohakare and Masilonyana Local Municipalities in the Free State, Kagisano-Molopo Local Municipality in the North West Province and Kheis Local Municipality in the Northern Cape.
The revelations were made by the Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) Party in a statement dated 22 April 2025. According to the party, the non-compliance was condoned by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Velenkosini Hlabisa by failing to act against these defiant municipalities.
“The Minister of COGTA must provide plans, with clear dates, detailing when he intends
to summon Mayors, Municipal Managers and provincial MECs of Finance to account.
The citizens deserve to know whether this so-called GNU protects inefficiencies, incompetence and corruption. As the MK Party, it is our duty to ensure that these matters are attended to with the utmost seriousness and urgency in consequence management. The MK Party calls for urgent action against municipal accounting officers responsible for failing to submit the required financial statements within the deadline,” the MK party said in the statement.
The party added that this serious breach of regulations hampers accountability and oversight.
“The Minister’s unnecessary delay in acting against the failures of Councillors and Municipal Managers indicates impunity and a serious lack of consequence management by the so-called GNU. Sadly, this has resulted in an increase in poor service delivery in the
poorest of communities.”
The spokesperson for the Office of the AG, Africa Boso, said all the matters would be dealt with next month.
“The AG will be tabling/releasing the general report on all municipalities next month – in terms of our mandate we will deal with related enquiries then,” Boso said.
