Gauteng — The Standing Committee on Public Accounts has raised severe concerns over the deteriorating state of municipal finances across South Africa’s major metros. During recent oversight hearings, SCOPA Chairperson Songezo Zibi highlighted systemic governance failures, multibillion-rand irregular expenditures, and a critical lack of financial oversight in cities including Johannesburg, eThekwini, and Ekurhuleni.
The parliamentary committee’s extensive hearings scrutinized metro officials over a multitude of crises, ranging from worsening audit outcomes and unfunded budgets to severely delayed infrastructure projects.
A significant portion of the hearings focused on the City of Johannesburg, where officials found themselves in a heated dispute over irregular expenditure findings. While the Mayor of Johannesburg has argued that the city’s primary issue is actually an under-spending on crucial maintenance and infrastructure, Zibi pointed to a much deeper structural problem. He noted that the city’s governance model is overly complex, burdened by too many agencies, boards, and chief executive officers. Zibi suggested that streamlining the city’s financial structures is essential to resolving the crisis.
Furthermore, the SCOPA Chairperson emphasized a glaring skills deficit within the municipality. He revealed that in many cases, officials tasked with overseeing municipal agencies lack professional qualifications and are unable to even read basic financial statements, rendering effective oversight impossible.
The oversight hearings also uncovered alarming vulnerabilities in other major municipalities. In eThekwini, the committee examined the fallout from a massive traffic fines scam that cost the city approximately R2 billion. The fraudulent system had to be completely switched off, leaving the municipality struggling to recover the lost revenue and address the resulting service delivery impacts.
Governance and conflict of interest issues were also heavily criticized, particularly regarding internal audit functions. Zibi highlighted that in several metros, audit executives are improperly reporting to the municipal manager rather than directly to the council, severely compromising independent oversight.
The financial and administrative decay is not limited to the country’s largest cities. The committee also turned its attention to Buffalo City, where concerns were raised about Mayoral Committee (MMC) members being hopelessly underqualified for their executive portfolios. Zibi warned that allowing unqualified individuals to hold such positions is a violation of the spirit of the law and inevitably leads to disastrous administrative outcomes.
To address these widespread systemic failures, Zibi indicated that SCOPA is looking into the Municipal Systems Act and the Municipal Finance Management Act. The committee aims to identify legislative amendments that can strengthen governance systems and curb political interference. Zibi stressed that National Treasury must take a more decisive role in intervening in municipalities that have fallen into a state of severe political and financial distress.
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