Tag: local government

Local government in South Africa faces challenges such as bureaucratic inefficiencies, lack of resources, and widespread corruption. These issues often hinder local government's ability to effectively meet the dire needs of the community.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) won control of the uMngeni Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands after the local government elections in 2021. As the only DA-run municipality in KZN, uMngeni provides a template for how local government could work in a post-ANC South Africa.

We urge government to fast track professionalisation of local government finance units. This follows the Auditor-General (AG), Tsakani Maluleke’s presentation on the 2021-22 Local Government Audit Outcome to the Standing Committee of the Auditor-General (SCOAG) on Wednesday, 31 May which continues to reflect poor audit outcomes as a result of poor financial planning, inadequate financial controls, skills and capacity, governance and accountability.

A recent Labour Court judgment has reinforced the unilateral nature of an employee’s resignation and clarified the legal authority of an administrator to hire employees. Reading like Shakespeare's 'The Comedy of Errors', a recent Labour Court judgment wades through muddied water to reiterate the crystal-clear effect of an employee's resignation in Mohlwaadibona v Dr JS Moroka Municipality (J718/21) [2022] ZALCJHB 91. 

The 2019-20 local government general report released by the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) on 15 June continues to emphasise the lack of accountability and consequence management in local government which impacts service delivery and municipal finance management.

Following the local government election, the focus now is on the potential coalitions. In numerous municipalities, including five of the metropolitan municipalities, no party was able to achieve more than 50%, thus triggering an intense and potentially heated negotiation with regard to possible coalition governments at a local level.

We have noted with concern the Auditor General’s report of the audit outcomes for local government, which showed that only 8% of municipalities received clean audits for the 2018/19 financial year, despite R1.26 billion being spent on financial reporting consultants.

Managing the debtor book is critical to ensuring stable cash flows for any municipality, and has great impact on its ability in delivering services to its constituents.