Macpherson withholds eThekwini EPWP funds over audit findings

By Lebone Rodah Mosima

Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson has withheld eThekwini’s EPWP funding for the 2026/27 financial year pending corrective action over Auditor-General findings of payments for services not rendered.

Speaking at a press briefing in uMhlanga, Macpherson said the AG had identified a material irregularity in the municipality’s administration of the programme during the 2021/22 financial year, including payments to ghost beneficiaries, deceased beneficiaries, people employed elsewhere in government and beneficiaries with no valid identity numbers.

Macpherson said the municipality had failed to provide verifiable records, including attendance registers and supporting documentation, to show that work had actually been performed by those who were paid.

He said the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure had formally received correspondence from the Auditor-General on 8 April about the matter.  

“This decision was not taken lightly,” Macpherson said. “But it is a necessary decision.”

He said the municipality