Parliament, Tuesday, 21 October 2025 – The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) today welcomed the improved audit outcomes of the Department of Traditional Affairs (DTA) and its departmental entities in the 2024/25 Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR).
Following briefings from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and its entities on their annual reports last week, the committee adopted its BRR Report this morning. The BRRR process is important as it allows Parliament to make recommendations to the Minister of Finance and the cabinet minister responsible for a government department to ensure the effective and efficient use of resources for optimal service delivery. Parliamentary committees annually assess the performance of each national department before the national budget is introduced. The committees then annually submit BRRR for tabling in the NA for each department.
In its report, the committee welcomed the clean audits of the Cultural, Religious and Linguistic (CRL) Rights Commission, the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB), the Department of Traditional Affairs, and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) for the 2024/2025 financial year. Up from two in the previous financial year, the four clean audit opinions show progress, while the Department of Cooperative Governance and the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) sustained their unqualified audits with findings due to weaknesses in record-keeping, among other issues.
The committee commended SALGA’s financial and organisational performance, but expressed concern that these achievements have not led to improvements in the persistent dysfunction in many municipalities. It acknowledged that addressing the dysfunction in municipalities is not solely the purview of SALGA, but also called for measurable evidence of the organisation’s impact on municipalities and their performance. The committee also called for a report on SALGA’s engagements with Eskom, the Department of Electricity and Energy and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) regarding unsustainable municipal electricity debt and cost-of-supply reforms.
On the Department of Cooperative Governance’s performance, the committee was critical of unauthorised (R171 million) and irregular (R775 million) expenditure that related to the Community Work Programme. The committee directed the department to provide quarterly updates on these matters, the recovery of monies and progress in implementing an anti-corruption strategy. The committee also urged the department to automate and maintain a comprehensive list of municipal officials dismissed for misconduct, as required by the Municipal Systems Act.
Delays in the disbursement of disaster grant funding and inequitable disaster funding allocations were flagged as another concern. The committee instructed the department to review timelines and report on revised allocations for the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. It also called for quarterly dashboards on spending of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG). The committee urged that MIG funds be used to ensure service delivery outcomes rather than just meeting targets for compliance.
In the report, the committee criticised MISA for regressing from a clean audit finding and underspending its budget. It instructed MISA to table a spending plan for the unspent Eastern Seaboard Development Programme funds and to address weaknesses in financial controls.
The Department of Traditional Affairs and the Municipal Demarcation Board were commended for their clean audits. The committee, however, urged the DTA to report on unresolved traditional leadership matters and to follow up on resolutions from the 2017 Traditional Leaders’ Indaba. The MDB, in turn, was also commended for progress with the ward delimitation ahead of the local government elections scheduled for next year. The committee, however, instructed the MDB to resolve boundary disputes in places such as the Matlosana Local Municipality.
The committee also had praise for the improvement in governance at the CRL Rights Commission. It requested clarity on the commission’s consultative process for developing a code of conduct for religious bodies and urged caution to avoid perceptions of overreach into religious self-regulation.
The Chairperson of the committee, Dr Zweli Mkhize, said, “Clean audits must lead to clean governance. The committee remains steadfast in our commitment to ensure financial integrity results in real improvements for communities.”
The report will now be tabled in the National Assembly.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS, DR ZWELI MKHIZE.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the committee’s media officer:
Name: Alicestine October (Ms)
Cell: 083 665 4345
E-mail: aoctober@parliament.gov.za
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