3 days ago
Mayors face scrutiny as Auditor-General calls for improved oversight
Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has said that mayors of municipalities need to play their oversight role.
Image: Independent Newspapers Archives
Mayors of poorly performing municipalities are facing criticism and have been accused of failing to perform their oversight responsibilities and act against underperforming officials.
The Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), Tsakani Maluleke, took mayors to task amid revelations that many municipalities in the country are poorly managed.
She recently tabled her report on the outcomes of municipalities for the 2024-2025 financial year. The report revealed that only 41 of the country's 257 municipalities achieved clean audits.
The AGSA said the performance of municipalities reflected the tone set at the top by those appointed to lead them, adding that mayors contributed to the malaise by failing to perform oversight on officials.
Maluleke highlighted during an interview that mayors had responsibilities and powers vested in law. The Structures Act details the responsibilities of the mayor, which include financial responsibility.
The mayor is designated as the 'councillor responsible for financial matters', including preparing and submitting the draft budget to the council, national/provincial treasury, and other relevant bodies.
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Addressing the issue of audit outcomes, Maluleke said the law stipulates that it is the mayor who is supposed to monitor the implementation of the approved performance plan. The mayor is also responsible for monitoring budget expenditure and ensuring that the municipal manager puts in place the controls that will safeguard the existing budget.
'What we are reporting is that unfunded budgets continue to be approved by councils. Even when budgets are approved, you still end up with unauthorised expenditure because people are spending beyond what was initially approved. It is the mayor's job to oversee and take action, yet they don't,' she said.
Maluleke noted that when the agreed performance fell short, there was often no action taken. 'People are not held accountable; the municipal manager is not held accountable. It is the mayor who must drive these matters, and the speaker and the council must ensure that these things are done. The individuals responsible for oversight are those who come through the political system,' she added.
The AGSA cited the uMshwathi Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal as an example of improvement in audit outcomes, attributing part of this success to the hiring of a competent financial manager who had the support of the municipal manager and the political leadership.
Mandla Zondi, the mayor of uMshwathi Local Municipality, acknowledged that mayors had a critical role to ensure the performance of the municipality.
'In our case, each quarter we review the agreed performance indicators to assess how the municipality is performing. If those are not met, we engage with them, even bringing in experts from Cogta to assist. We also closely monitor how the municipality's funds are being managed each month,' he said.
Speaking on their improving performance, Zondi attributed it to a lack of interference: 'We politicians stick to our lane; we make the policies and allow the municipal manager and his staff to implement the work,' he added.
Msunduzi mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla said a distinction should be made between the executive mayoral system and the executive committee (Exco) members' mayoral system.
'The executive mayor has the power to appoint the people that they lead the municipalities with – they essentially have a cabinet that works with them, giving them more influence in that they pull in the same direction.'
He said mayors and councils had a single point of influence and accountability in that they only appointed the municipal manager, who then appointed his staff.
'If the municipal manager is not performing, the mayor can take action and make recommendations to council to take action. If there is a manager that is not performing, we expect the municipal manager to take action. If the municipal manager does not, then we take action against the municipal manager.'
EThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba agreed with the AG, saying as a political leader of a political entity, mayors had to set the right tone.'We are part of the system to improve transparency and ensure accountability in the exercise of our mandate as the municipality, which includes the mayor in our city because we are a collective.
'The mayor and Exco should ensure we attend to matters the AG raises, work with the city manager to deal with repeat audit findings to the extent the city manager has developed an audit action plan, and report on progress they are making on all audit queries, not only by the Auditor-General but by our own audit unit,' he said.
Local government expert Mike Sutcliffe noted that mayors, whether executive or Exco, had substantial powers, particularly regarding oversight under the Structures Act, especially when it came to addressing issues of oversight.
THE MERCURY
