By Charles Molele
The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has commended the South African Local Government Association on Friday for achieving yet another clean audit outcome in the current financial year.
SALGA briefed the committee on Friday about its annual report.
SALGA’s performance was reviewed alongside other entities, including the Municipal Demarcation Board and the Commission for Cultural, Linguistic, and Religious Rights, which were also congratulated for their solid annual reports for the 2023/24 financial year.
Commending SALGA, the portfolio committee said that clean audits must lead to tangible improvements for communities.
“Clean audits are just the beginning and not the end of the road. We must ensure municipalities deliver services to the satisfaction of our people,” the committee said.
However, the portfolio committee raised concerns about the lack of skills among municipal councillors, particularly the alarming statistic that 26% of councillors nationwide do not hold a matric qualification, despite overseeing multi-million-rand budgets.
This was seen as a significant governance challenge, with the committee urging SALGA to play a critical role in addressing the issue.
Chairperson of the portfolio committee, Dr. Zweli Mkhize, said that committee members, who represent various political parties, are in a unique position to address the issue.
“We have access to all political parties, and we should discuss the issue of minimum criteria in our parties so that those democratically elected have minimum capabilities to operate as effective public representatives. That way, the skills and levels of education will not be counted as a factor in poor performance of government institutions,” Mkhize said.
Mkhize added that ensuring elected officials meet these standards would prevent the lack of skills and education from being used as an excuse for poor governance in municipalities.
SALGA told the portfolio committee during the year under review, that it has trained 4 514 municipal councillors and officials in 32 programmes to improve decision-making, governance and service delivery in 202 municipalities. The committee noted this as encouraging since sound leadership is critical in providing communities with the needed services.
The Municipal Demarcation Board, however, faced criticism after its audit opinion regressed to an unqualified opinion with findings.
The audit uncovered material misstatements in the MDB’s financial statements, with issues ranging from incomplete records to problems with petty cash management.
Mkhize expressed disappointment over the findings, urging the MDB to address what he described as “mundane issues” like petty cash reconciliation.
“A higher standard of financial management is expected. Even small organisations should not be making basic mistakes like these. Clean it up, as it reflects poorly on the MDB,” said Mkhize.
“Your audit issues should not involve mundane issues like the inability to keep accurate petty cash records. These are basics, even for a small organisation. So, clean that up, as it does not look good to be corrected on the small things.”
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