he whistle on ongoing financial mismanagement at Metsimaholo Local Municipality (MLM). This comes after irregular, wasteful, and fruitless expenditure allegedly ballooning to over R900m.

According to DA councillor in Metsimaholo, Thulani Mbana, the troubling findings presented by the Office of the Auditor-General (AG) paint a disturbing picture of how public funds are being handled without any accountability.

Mbana said during the 2024/2025 financial year, the municipality spent R13.5m on consultants to fix its assets register and Annual Financial Statements, yet the documents remain faulty in the current financial year.

He further revealed that in the same financial year, the municipality incurred about R50m in irregular expenditure.

Mbana said what’s raising eyebrows is the growing total of irregular, wasteful, and fruitless spending, which he claims exceeds hundreds of millions of rands.

“In this financial year, the municipality continued to overpay for contracts; the compounded amount to date in wasteful, fruitless, and irregular expenditure totals over R900m,” he said.

Mbana blamed the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) for failing to investigate.

“The MPAC, which was entrusted with investigating these actions, continues to do so, but was quick to recommend the write-off of R96m without any investigation. The AG’s office was not provided with any report from MPAC, which shows a lack of transparency,” he said.

“The municipality continues to allocate more of its finances to operational expenditure than to capital investment, which would boost revenue collection. At least 20% of the total budget should be allocated to capital assets, yet the municipality is doing the opposite. In this financial year, only 2% of the budget is allocated to maintenance, which contributes to ongoing service delivery issues.”

“According to this report, the municipality continues to experience water and electricity distribution losses due to municipal bridges and illegal connections,” he said.

MLM spokesperson, Dr. Gino Alberts, said there is no growing crisis of irregular, wasteful, and fruitless expenditure in Metsimaholo Local Municipality.

“The narrative suggesting a spiralling R900m crisis is misleading and does not reflect the current financial controls, corrective measures, and governance improvements implemented by Council and Administration,” he said.