Coalition promises ‘deep reform and real accountability’ in Tshwane

The multi-party coalition in Gauteng said it was disappointed by the serious findings against the Tshwane metro in a leaked Auditor-General’s report.

“Our efforts to displace the failed ANC governance can never see regressions in the standards of good governance,” it said in a press statement.

The coalition includes ActionSA, Freedom Front Plus, IFP, ACDP, Cope and the DA.

The coalition said that national coalition structures must be briefed on the findings as well as the measures that will be undertaken for remedial action.

“We are unequivocal in expressing our disappointment with the audit findings and expect urgent remedial action, deep reform and real accountability.”

Among other things, the report found:

– Irregular expenditure of R10-billion

– Unauthorised expenditure of over R600-million

– Fruitless and wasteful expenditure understated by over R1-billion

– Unjustified supply chain management deviations of over R480-million without reason

– Material misstatement of assets under construction and disclosed as completed, which means they were overstated by R2-billion

– Assets worth over R52-billion were not properly accounted for, not valued properly and the impairment of those assets was not properly assessed

– Leave pay amount of over R800-million not properly accounted for

– Loans and bonds amounting to over R800-million were not correctly accounted for.

The coalition noted that it had taken over five months after the financial year for the reviewed period had commenced and blamed “deep historical problems” underpinning the report.

“South Africans are looking to a grouping of political parties to provide an alternative to the failed ANC legacy of collapsing service delivery and rampant corruption,” it said, as it promised decisive and severe action.

Tshwane mayor Randall Williams said that the treasury was providing two former CFOs to assist the metro and an external audit firm to provisionally audit the first half of 2022.

In response to the leaked report, the EFF called for the removal of what it called the “lame duck” DA coalition government in Tshwane.

This while DA dismissed the EFF’s claims of R10-billion being “stolen” as outright “lies” and blamed any irregularities on the municipality’s previous CFO and acting city manager.

A July 2022 Auditor-General report called Tshwane the worst-performing metro in the province and flagged it for an irregular expenditure of R2.7-billion.

Together with eight other municipalities, the acting Auditor-General business unit leader for Gauteng, Dorothy Rampopo, warned Tshwane against the regression in performance reporting.

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