Nine municipalities face scrutiny over late financial statements

The Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) has called for urgent action against municipal accounting officers responsible for failing to submit the required financial statements within the deadline.

In a statement issued by the party on Tuesday, it called on both Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to take decisive decisions against the nine municipalities which the party said failed to submit their financial statements for auditing. In the statement, the party was reacting to the Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke who, according to the party, expressed concerns over the nine municipalities’ failure to submit the outstanding annual financial statements for the 2023/24 audit cycle.

The party said the delay by authorities in attending to this breach has resulted in an increase in poor service delivery in the poorest of communities.

“As the MK Party, it is our duty to ensure that these matters are attended to with the utmost seriousness and urgency in consequence management. The MK Party calls for urgent action against municipal accounting officers responsible for failing to submit the required financial statements within the deadline,” read the statement.

Included on the list of the errant municipalities named by the party, is the embattled Msunduzi Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal which has faced governance problems for an extended period.

The municipality in Pietermaritzburg is currently under the spotlight of the provincial government which last month was forced to intervene and appointed a 7-member team led by the former Finance MEC Ravi Pillay to fix governance issues in the municipality. The municipality's spokesperson Nontobeko Mkhize denied that the municipality had outstanding financial statements, saying the delays were caused by an objection which was lodged by the municipality that has since been resolved which resulted in the tabling of the financial audit report in the council.

The Premier Working group, similar to the eThekwini Presidential Group, was appointed in February as part of the new Section 154 intervention measures following a report by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi in October last year which said the Municipality’s governance was deteriorating. The group is expected to present its first report on Friday.

The municipality had been under administration for more than five years and to the surprise of the many people, including the opposition parties, it was lifted out of administration in April last year.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za