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MSAA: An Act in good faith, but will it work?

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the long-awaited Municipal Systems Amendment Act (MSAA) into law on 19 August – an important legislative change in the administrative management of local government. The Act seeks to regularise the appointment and performance of municipal managers and the decision-makers around them to ensure cleaner local administrations.   But while political agendas Read more >

Auditor-General: 2021-22 MFMA outcomes show continuing decline

Capable leaders should demonstrate change by strengthening transparency and accountability. This is the call from Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke, who earlier today tabled the 2020-21 Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) audit outcomes in the National Assembly. The usual five-year comparison period encompasses the entirety of the administration that took office in 2016, with local government Read more >

Auditor-general: local government on the brink of collapse

By Kwazi Dlamini Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke has called on leadership at both political and administrative level to make a determined commitment to tackling the scourge of corruption and irregular expenditure in local government. The consequences will be dire otherwise. Delivering her consolidated annual Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) report on local government for the Read more >

Municipalities avoid explaining irregular procurement

In part two of our local municipality mini-series, we describe investigations relating to some municipalities which were reported to us for irregular procurement processes. Part one dealt with the 2019 Government Performance Index, released recently by Good Governance Africa. Corruption Watch gets most of its reports from people wanting to expose corruption in provincial government Read more >

Mnquma Local Municipality – a failure of governance

By Kwazi Dlamini Corruption-ridden Mnquma Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, together with its district municipality, Amathole, seems to be in tatters. Mnquma is off the radar – it cannot be reached by the usual forms of communication, while e-mail addresses provided on the website are unresponsive. The telephone number, also provided on their website Read more >

Lack of accountability shows in MFMA audit results

Released in Parliament last week by auditor-general (AG) Kimi Makwetu, the 2016-2017 local government audit results present a bleak picture. The AG attributes the overall deterioration in local municipality audit results and lack of compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) to advice and warnings that were largely not heeded. Part one of our Read more >

CW investigations: often more downs than ups

An investigation is only as successful as each of the components that contribute to it. When Corruption Watch undertakes an investigation, we of necessity depend on the people with whom we interact to co-operate and furnish us with the information we need, so that we can come to a solid conclusion. Often this is not Read more >