Tshwane grapples with high vacancy rates in key departments

The Tshwane metro is battling to fill critical vacancies in key departments, with high vacancy rates affecting its ability to deliver essential services.

The Water and Sanitation Department is currently operating at a vacancy rate of 49.73%, while the Energy and Electricity Department has 35.87% of its positions unfilled.

Environmental and Agriculture Management sits at 29.67%, and Group Financial Services are at 23%.

These figures were disclosed during the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) workshop, where the committee met to discuss solutions to the metro’s ongoing audit challenges and service delivery issues.

MPAC Chairperson Godwin Ratikwane said the committee will write to the city manager and request a briefing on the plan to fill those vacancies that will assist in ensuring that quality service delivery reaches the residents of Tshwane.

The metro has advertised almost 745 critical service delivery positions in efforts to address the vacancies.

He said the process to fill these vacancies is already under way, with a focus on essential technical positions such as plumbers and electricians.

The MPAC also met with officials from the Office of the Speaker, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) to scrutinise the findings of the 2023/24 annual report.

“This exercise aimed to ensure that all the relevant Section 79 committees and stakeholders know what is expected of them and that work needs to move forward in their oversight roles,” said Ratikwane.

He emphasised the importance of addressing the audit findings and stated that the MPAC would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the metro receives a much better audit outcome for the 2024/25 financial year.

Ratikwane said the repeated audit findings and contract mismanagement, which are the major contributors to the current qualified findings audit opinion, would be given serious attention to ensure they are thoroughly addressed and that the metro moves toward a better financial state.

“It is concerning that despite there being improvement in certain areas, some findings are repeated findings.”

He said Tshwane must comply and cooperate with the Chapter 9 institutions, namely AGSA, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, SALGA, the National Treasury and any other legislated bodies to improve the audit findings and deliver services to the residents of Tshwane.

“Investigations will be conducted without fear or favour, and the committee will hold everyone accountable, starting with the executive, with full transparency.”

Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the metro has also set up a Circular 113 platform to address all audit findings, including the repeat findings.

“The platform sits weekly to review the progress of the actions which have been taken by management.”

The Circular 113 process is managed through the National Treasury Portal and includes several stakeholders.

“Internal Audit also looks at the action plans and validates their suitability. The city is also now focusing on the root causes of the findings to ensure that the findings are addressed at the root cause level and do not recur.”

He said the key outcome of the workshop was that there should be dedicated teams for all the qualified areas in the audit report.

“Six audit stream teams were set up to address the qualification areas. Each audit stream was tasked to present specific actions which they will take to address the audit findings and timelines.

“The workshop decided that all the findings should be addressed by March 31, and processes should be changed to address the findings.”

Mashigo said the streams meet weekly to track progress on the audit findings.

“There is also buy-in for the work which will be done by the streams at all the levels within the city, as the workshop was attended by the senior leadership of the city including the deputy mayor.

“The metro has also written to the AGSA to have an interim audit done.”

The interim audit will, amongst other matters, look at the qualified areas to assess whether the work which has been done by management is sufficient to address the audit findings and the qualification areas.

The request by the city is that AGSA should commence the audit in April so there is sufficient time to correct any areas which would still be lacking.

Further to this, the city will be doing its half-year financial on December 31, third quarter on March 31 and hard close on May 31financial statements to ensure the validation of the information in the ledger.

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