Besides the natural beauty of its beaches and mountains one of the reasons the Western Cape is seeing an influx of South Africans moving to this province is the state of its municipalities, in stark contrast with many others in the country.
In its findings on the 2024-’25 financial year the Auditor-General gave the Breede Valley Municipality (BVM) a clean audit opinion for the sixth consecutive year.
The Langeberg Municipality also received a clean audit opinion, in its case for the seventh consecutive year.
The Drakenstein Municipality (Paarl, Wellington) was recognised as the best municipality in the Western Cape after securing its 11th clean audit.
Following the announcement of these findings, many residents complained that they still do not receive quality services from their municipalities, such as tarred roads in some areas, a constant supply of clean water, some roads that are in poor condition and a backlog in the supply of housing.
Some have alleged that municipalities tick all the administrative boxes, but it does not translate to services on ground level.
Only 16% of the municipalities in South Africa received clean audit reports for the 2023-’24 period, with many municipalities in the country in dire financial straits unable to deliver services to their communities.
The Auditor-General (AG) is an independent, constitutionally-mandated body, that audits the government’s use of public money.
The AG explained the need for municipalities to aim for clean audits as follows: “Municipalities that achieve clean audits have strong control environments that enable reliable financial and performance reporting and good practices that can be replicated. However, these municipalities do not necessarily fully deliver on their service delivery mandate.
“When a municipality receives a clean audit, this means it has accurate records that allow it to communicate transparently to communities about whether and when their needs will be met.
“This enables the council and everyone with an interest in the municipality – particularly communities, community organisations and those in national and provincial government who need to oversee the municipality’s performance and provide the support it needs to succeed – to judge how the municipality is doing and to take action where necessary.
“Municipalities that have institutionalised controls and systems in place to plan, measure, monitor and account for their finances and performance are more likely to have a solid foundation on which councils can build to improve their performance and deliver most of the promised services.
“Sustained, consistent and meaningful clean audits translate into improvements in the lived realities of ordinary South Africans.”
