Emfuleni municipal financial mismanagement, poor service delivery far from over: DA

Share the Article:

Financial mismanagement and poor service delivery are far from over at Emfuleni local municipality (ELM), so says DA’s Emfuleni North constituency head Kingsol Chabalala.

This comes after the institution received yet another qualified audit report from the Auditor-General (AG) for the 2022/2023 financial year which has been happening over two consecutive years.

Chabalala stated that according to the AG’s consolidated general report on local government audit outcomes, new matters emerged, resulting in this municipality stagnating on a qualified audit opinion. 

He attributed these to court cases within the municipality, attachment of the bank account and failure to investigate identified instances of unauthorised, irregular and fruitless expenditure.

“In the 2022/2023 financial year, Emfuleni incurred an irregular expenditure of R92.3 million. The fruitless and wasteful expenditure amounted to R598.1 million, and the unauthorised expenditure reached a staggering R2.2 billion.

“These figures make it abundantly clear that this is a municipality in disarray as far as financial management is concerned.

“A large part of this is due to corruption and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA’s) failure to strengthen governance and address instances of non-compliance,” he expressed.

Collapse of governance in Emfuleni

Chabalala highlighted that the collapse of governance in Emfuleni has led to immense suffering for the residents with no money to pay for service providers such as Eskom and Rand Water.

He continued; “Refuse is not collected and roads are littered with potholes and flooded by sewage. The health and safety risks faced by the residents are just the tip of the iceberg.

ALSO READ | How did Chidimma Adetshina’s mother travel Nigeria, ActionSA asks

“Emfuleni ratepayers deserve more than a government defined by incompetence, scandal, and inefficiency.”

Chabalala took a swipe at the cash-strapped institution by comparing it to Midvaal local municipality, which has achieved clean audits for ten consecutive years and said it demonstrates that financial integrity and accountability can lead to success.