Note to Broadcasters: Please find attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by CJ Steyl
Not a single North West municipality obtained a clean audit report for the 2022/23 financial year, much like residents throughout the province struggle to access clean drinking water.
At the end of the 2022/23 financial year, North West municipalities returned R160 million in conditional grant funding to National Treasury intended for water infrastructure maintenance and improvements. Eight municipalities recorded more than R300 million in financial losses due to water leaks amounting to more than 35% of all purified piped water.
The Auditor-General (AG) tabled the Consolidated General Report on Local Government Audit Outcomes in Parliament yesterday. Although there has been some improvement in audit outcomes, the reality is that we can’t link the improved audit outcomes to improved service delivery, thus recording only an improvement in reporting and not in the delivery of services.
It appears that the interventions by the North West Provincial Treasury are bearing fruit, with the assistance of the provincial Department of Cooperative Governance. However, whether these interventions are sustainable remains to be seen. We question the long-term impact of these interventions considering that North West Municipalities spent more than R214 million on consultants to compile annual financial statements for the year under review.
The ANC’s cadre deployment policy has come to bite it. The standoff between municipal officials and ANC office-bearers continues to undermine governance and service delivery, especially in the Mamusa, Tswaing, and Kagisano-Molopo local municipalities. Residents in Tswaing and Kagisano-Molopo were held ransom these last few weeks due to the standoff between municipal officials and ANC politicians.
North West municipalities cumulatively recorded R3,45 billion in irregular expenditure, while unauthorised expenditure topped R2,45 billion and R571 million was lost to wasteful expenditure.
The collective North West bulk Eskom debt stands at more than R3,05 billion, and another R2,54 billion is owed to water boards.
The Ditsobotla Local Municipality has failed to submit its annual financial statements for the second consecutive year. The AG indicated that Provincial Treasury is working to ensure that these financial statements are submitted by 30 August 2024. The DA anticipates another horror story of looting and corruption here since the municipality has completely collapsed.
It is evident in the AG’s report that the ANC’s effort to improve local governance and quality basic service delivery is not being tackled wholeheartedly. Officials are still being appointed based on who they know and not what they know. Consequence management towards accountability is still not being implemented, and money that should improve service delivery is being lost to fraud, corruption, and incompetence.
With the 2026 Local Government Elections on the horizon, time is running out for the ANC in governing local municipalities in North West. The DA local governments stand far above the poor performance of the ANC, obtaining 20 clean municipal audits and expanding quality basic service delivery to all.