National structures from the City of Tshwane’s governing coalition parties met the municipality’s mayoral committee on Monday to discuss the city’s adverse audit outcomes. The DA-led coalition continues to blame its predecessors, the ANC.
The national structures of the governing City of Tshwane coalition engaged the city’s mayoral committee in a hybrid meeting on Monday regarding the Auditor-General’s (AG) leaked adverse report on the city’s financial fiasco.
The multiparty coalition in Gauteng — comprising the DA, ActionSA, FF+, IFP, ACDP and Cope — said it was “unequivocal in expressing its disappointment with the audit findings and expects urgent remedial action, deep reform and real accountability”.
Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke’s report, which was submitted to the Gauteng legislature late in 2022, made the following findings about the city’s financials from July 2020 to June 2021:
Irregular expenditure of R10-billion;
Unauthorised expenditure of more than R600-million;
Fruitless and wasteful expenditure understated by more than R1-billion;
Unjustified supply chain management deviations of more than R480-million without reason;
Material misstatement of assets under construction and disclosed as completed, which means they were overstated by R2-billion;
Assets worth more than R52-billion were not properly accounted for and not valued properly, and the impairment of those assets was not properly assessed;
Leave pay amounting to more than R800-million not properly accounted for; and
Loans and bonds amounting to more than R800-million were not correctly accounted for.
The AG said there was “material uncertainty” over the city’s viability as an ongoing concern.
The Gauteng coalition and Tshwane’s DA mayor Randall Williams have largely blamed the adverse findings on the period in the year under audit when the city was run by administrators appointed by the ANC-led provincial government.
The coalition said: “While it can be noted that the current multiparty government took over the reins at the metro five months after the 2021/22 financial year commenced and there are deep historical problems underpinning the report predating even that financial year, the multiparty government is nonetheless committed to address the historical root causes of adverse findings and hold those responsible accountable.”
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Government lost R12bn to non-compliance and fraud, latest Auditor-General report reveals”
Williams told Daily Maverick: “The ANC provincial administrators inherited a R296-million surplus when they came into the city and left the city with a R4.3-billion deficit. The effect of their mismanagement has had a lasting impact on the city and many of the challenges we face today in the city can be directly traced back to their time ...