The National Council of Provinces’ (NCOP) Provincial Week delegation to Mpumalanga has welcomed reports from the office of the Auditor-General that several municipalities in the province have improved their financial performances from adverse audit outcomes and disclaimers to qualified audit outcomes.
These reports were presented on the first day of the Provincial Week programme when the delegation received briefings from the provincial government, the Nkangala District Municipality and Emakhazeni Local Municipality on the state of municipalities and service delivery in the province.
The theme for this year’s Provincial Week is “Building Viable Municipalities for Enhanced Delivery of Basic Services to Communities”, and in Mpumalanga the focus is on Emakhazeni Local Municipality in the Nkangala District.
Officials from the provincial office of the AG told the NCOP delegation that efforts to eradicate adverse audits and disclaimers are bearing fruit with a number of municipalities moving to qualified audit comes. However, there is still a long way to go towards unqualified and clean audits. “There was an improvement in audit outcomes from the previous year and the previous administration leading to no disclaimer or adverse audit outcomes in the province. The positive shift in outcomes is attributable to small pockets of improvement in controls driven by the effective implementation of audit action plans,” said AG said.
The NCOP delegation and MPLs from the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature also heard that while there were improvements in the audit outcomes, municipal finances in the province remain weak due to poor budgeting and spending controls, which led to unfunded budgets, deficits and unauthorised expenditures. Municipalities are struggling to collect revenue for services billed, with 61% of revenue deemed irrecoverable and the poor state of financial health compromises the municipality's ability to deliver service.
The AG’s office also reported that procurement and contract management controls remain weak, making the system vulnerable to fraud and losses, and there is a concerning increase in number of unjustifiable deviations from supply chain management processes. “There is an overall improvement in the quality of published performance reports. However, this did not translate to improved service delivery as all municipalities did not achieve the planned targets relating to infrastructure and service delivery,” the NCOP heard.
The AG recommended strengthening the state of financial health in all municipalities and a robust financial management culture, which would include collecting all revenue, prudent spending, preventing financial loss and wastage, and speedy recovery when this occurs.
The acting Premier of Mpumalanga, Mr Speedy Mashilo, told the NCOP that the provincial government is implementing several measures to support municipalities to improve service delivery and financial management. “The provincial government is assisting municipalities to address debts with Eskom, Rand Water and the Department of Water and Sanitation through developing and implementing credible revenue enhancement plans, developing credible repayment plans and, where there are disputes on the amounts, owed putting in place processes to address these disputes through the Intergovernmental Relations Act rather than going to court,” said Mr Mashilo.
He also said that the municipalities receive support to develop and implement corrective action plans to improve operations and maintenance.
Common challenges in municipalities across the province, in addition to the Eskom debt, include incomplete or delayed infrastructure projects, inadequate budgeting for maintenance and collapsing infrastructure due overloading because of unplanned human settlements.
“We are making our municipalities to put more money to maintenance of infrastructure. We also have too many informal settlements in the province, which are straining our electricity and water supply,” said Mr Mashilo. (He is also the MEC of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs in the province.)
The leader of the NCOP delegation, Mr Patrick Sibande, said the NCOP welcomed the improved audit outcomes but remained concerned about abandoned projects and collapsing infrastructure due to lack of maintenance. “We also understand that there are issues that are beyond the jurisdiction of local government and require the intervention of provincial and national government. Municipalities always complain that the allocation from Treasury is insufficient to address all the service delivery needs. It is a matter that we will take back to Parliament to try find solutions,” Mr Sibande said.
Sakhile Mokoena
19 November 2025
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