By Nkhensani Chauke
The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), in collaboration with the Standing Committee on the Auditor General and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), has embarked on a unified strategy for municipal oversight to address persistent audit failures.
This initiative comes in light of concerning municipal audit findings reported earlier this year by the Office of the Auditor-General (AG).
The AG highlighted that the trend of poor audit outcomes persists, with only 41 municipalities (16%) achieving clean audits. Although 59 municipalities have shown improvement since 2020-21, 40 have regressed.
During a committee meeting on Tuesday, Dr. Zweli Mkhize, Chairperson of COGTA, expressed serious concerns over limited progress in municipal financial management.
The audit outcomes for the 2023/2024 financial year underscore that only 16% of 257 municipalities obtained clean audits, while the majority received qualified, disclaimer, or non-submission opinions.
Responding to these findings, Mkhize emphasised that the committee will adopt a revised, collaborative oversight model focusing on intergovernmental accountability to address the challenges highlighted in the 2023/2024 audit outcomes.
“Based on this new model, the committee will, with relevant oversight committees, conduct joint visits to provinces and municipalities, beginning with the Free State on 24 and 25 July. Oversight visits to the North West and Eastern Cape will then follow,” said Mkhize.
According to Mkhize, the committee’s aim is to avoid duplication and, instead, promote institutional coherence by ensuring that every sphere of government accounts for its constitutional responsibilities through the collaborative oversight model.
During the planned oversight visits, Members of Parliament (MP) will engage with premiers, speakers of provincial legislatures, Members of Executive Councils (MECs), municipal mayors, municipal council speakers, and accounting officers.
“The purpose of this is to evaluate the systemic causes behind repeat audit failures and to demand clear responses on what corrective actions have been taken and what measures are in place to prevent further regression,” said Mkhize.
He added that the focus will be on strengthening accountability and ensuring consequences for repeat offenders, in order to improve governance and ensure effective service delivery.
Furthermore, Mkhize said the committee will give particular attention to municipalities with repeated disclaimer audit opinions, poor-quality financial statements, continued overreliance on consultants without visible improvement, and persistent irregular expenditure.
He also confirmed that the committee has sought legal clarity on coordinating oversight across all spheres of government.
“This new approach reflects Parliament’s commitment to proactively preventing dysfunction rather than reacting to failures. It is designed to hold not only municipalities accountable but also provincial governments, which are constitutionally obligated under Section 154 of the Constitution to support and monitor local government. Premiers and MECs will therefore be asked to account for how they have fulfilled their oversight roles, particularly in cases where municipalities have consistently underperformed,” said Mkhize.
He described the joint oversight model as a direct institutional response to the Auditor-General’s earlier call for decisive intervention, outlined in her letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Thoko Didiza.
“The Office of the Auditor-General should not be placed in a position where it is compelled to perform administrative duties, such as correcting municipal submissions,” said Mkhize.
He reaffirmed the essence of the new collaborative approach, emphasising its goal to shift from fragmented accountability to a unified system of collective responsibility.
“We intend for this model to serve not only as a corrective measure but also as a blueprint for systemic reform and to ensure that audit reports reflect tangible improvements in governance and service delivery at the municipal level,” said Mkhize.
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