Cape Town- The Auditor-General’s latest report on the state of the country’s municipalities makes for grim reading.
In delivering the 2021-22 consolidated general report on the local government audit outcomes last week, AG Tsakani Maluleke called on municipalities to build a culture of accountability.
She warned that the state of local government is deteriorating and requires urgent attention from authorities at local and provincial levels.
Sadly, Maluleke’s comments are nothing new as previous reports from her office have shown the same downward trend each financial year.
There were fewer clean audits recorded with “instability that occurred with the transition to the new administration” put forth as one of the reasons for the decline.
Maluleke lamented that inadequate skills and capacity, governance failures and lack of accountability and consequences were the root causes behind many of the challenges faced by municipalities.
Ultimately, it is the residents who suffer when there are failures in municipalities.
Service delivery in some municipalities across the country leaves a lot to be desired, with constant complaints about water and electricity supply and refuse collection.
“We continued to see municipalities that do not adequately plan for delivering key basic services. In addition, accountability is hampered as there is little transparency on the true state of local government’s delivery of key basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity and housing,” Maluleke said.
To add insult to injury, ratepayers are also facing hefty tariff hikes come July 1. Many mobilised and took on municipalities on their lack of service delivery through pickets, demonstrations and petitions. We believe these peaceful actions to show municipalities that ratepayers are not cash cows are necessary.
In fact, in eThekwini Municipality the protests by ratepayer groups and residents saw the metro make adjustments to its proposed tariff increases.
While the adjustments were minor, the move demonstrates that citizens can effect change when they make use of their power.
Cape Times