Parliament, Tuesday, 12 August 2025 – The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), together with the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the Standing Committee on the Auditor-General, has concluded its oversight engagements with the final four municipalities in the Free State.
Today’s meeting with the Setsoto, Dihlabeng, Nketoana, and Phumelela local municipalities marks the end of an intensive oversight process involving all 23 municipalities in the Free State. The Free State was the first leg of a planned countrywide joint parliamentary oversight initiative to address poor audit outcomes in municipalities. The joint oversight revealed deep-seated governance failures, including billions owed to creditors, failure to pay pension contributions deducted from employees’ salaries, excessive and often unauthorised overtime payments, irregular tenders and over R7 billion in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in some municipalities. In many areas, service delivery has collapsed entirely.
The Chairperson of the committee, Dr Zweli Mkhize, described the delegation’s observations as “symptomatic of a culture of impunity”. He warned that unless urgent action is taken, some municipalities may remain financially unsustainable for up to a decade. “Grant-dependent municipalities unable to generate their own revenue must receive targeted support, but this must go hand-in-hand with strict accountability and consequences for wrongdoing,” he said.
According to Dr Mkhize, the provincial government will be held accountable for implementing interventions to address adverse audit outcomes, improve capacity and ensure municipal councils and mayors take full responsibility for governance failures. The committee has given the province three months to report on progress, with immediate updates expected on urgent matters, including instances where municipal officials misled the committee during the oversight engagements.
Responding to the delegation’s observations and concerns, the Free State provincial government committed to strengthening financial management support to municipalities. This will include appointing financial experts to assist with complex accounting matters and enforcing deadlines for the submission of quality annual financial statements. Internal audit processes will be reviewed, and municipal managers will be required to attend executive meetings to ensure consistent oversight, the delegation was assured.
In his response, a representative from the Office of the Auditor-General of South Africa, Mr Odwa Duda, reiterated the need for consequence management, addressing and correcting the prevalence of unfunded budgets, and improved scrutiny of financial and performance reports by mayors. Mr Duda also emphasised the role of municipal Public Accounts Committees and internal audit structures in deterring irregular expenditure and sustaining improvements in financial governance. Without these measures, he said, the province risks repeating poor audit outcomes.
Dr Mkhize stressed that restoring functionality in Free State municipalities will require both capacity-building and strict enforcement of accountability. “We cannot allow late submissions, poor-quality financial statements and governance negligence to persist. The provincial leadership must act decisively, and we will monitor every commitment made to ensure that the people of the Free State see real, lasting change.”
The committees will continue their joint municipal oversight programme in the North West and Gauteng from 1 to 7 September.
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:
Name: Alicestine October (Ms)
Cell: 083 665 4345
E-mail: aoctober@parliament.gov.za
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