Gauteng — The deepening municipal finance crisis across South Africa’s urban centers has come under intense scrutiny, with Songezo Zibi and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts exposing severe governance failures regarding multibillion-rand irregular spending. During recent parliamentary oversight hearings, the committee interrogated metro officials about unfunded budgets, deteriorating audit outcomes, and severely delayed infrastructure projects.
To combat this systemic rot, the committee is actively reviewing the Municipal Systems Act and the Municipal Finance Management Act. The primary objective is to identify legislative gaps that can strengthen governance frameworks and curb political interference. Furthermore, the committee emphasized that National Treasury must take a much more decisive role in intervening when municipalities fall into severe political and administrative distress across various provinces.
The hearings dissected the unique challenges facing the City of Johannesburg, where a sharp dispute emerged over irregular expenditure findings. While the Mayor defended the city by arguing that the root problem is actually an under-spending on vital maintenance and infrastructure, Zibi pointed to a bloated and overly complex governance model. He criticized the city’s reliance on too many agencies, boards, and chief executive officers, advocating for a centralized, streamlined approach to financial management. More alarmingly, Zibi highlighted a profound skills deficit, noting that many officials tasked with overseeing these municipal entities lack professional qualifications and are fundamentally unable to read basic financial statements.
In the eThekwini Municipality, the committee uncovered a litany of operational and financial vulnerabilities. Officials are grappling with the aftermath of a massive traffic fines scam that defrauded the city of R2 billion. The fraudulent system had to be entirely shut down, leaving the metro struggling to recover the lost revenue while managing severe service delivery impacts. Additionally, the committee flagged a critical conflict of interest in the city’s audit processes, specifically noting that the internal audit executive improperly reports to the municipal manager rather than directly to the council.
The crisis of competence extends beyond the country’s largest economic hubs. In Buffalo City, severe concerns were raised regarding the qualifications of Mayoral Committee (MMC) members. Zibi warned that allowing individuals who are hopelessly underqualified to hold executive portfolios is not only a violation of the law’s spirit but a guaranteed recipe for administrative disaster. He stressed that such incompetence cannot be tolerated or allowed to persist for years without consequence.
Ekurhuleni also faced the committee’s tough questioning, with officials challenged over their tendency to underestimate revenue and service delivery programs, further exacerbating their financial woes. Ultimately, the SCOPA Chairperson made it clear that the era of turning a blind eye to municipal mismanagement is over, demanding immediate, structural corrections to save South Africa’s local governments from total collapse.