Scopa flags financial and service-delivery failures at Msunduzi, Masilonyana - IOL

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) wants to intensify its oversight of local municipalities to strengthen financial accountability and improve service delivery.

Scopa, concerned about a lack of consequences for wrongdoing, also wants to scrutinise the role of provincial governments and municipal public accounts, which are also tasked with holding councils to account.

On Tuesday, the public accounts watchdog zoomed in on two such faltering municipalities, Msunduzi in KwaZulu-Natal and Masilonyana in the Free State. 

Both local municipalities face operational, governance, and financial crises that severely compromise their ability to deliver essential services.

The committee found that financially, both municipalities experience revenue collection challenges, mounting debt burdens, and widespread non-compliance with supply chain management regulations, resulting in increased balances of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

“Operational delivery is heavily crippled by crumbling, poorly maintained infrastructure, leading to utility distribution losses in both water and electricity,” reads the committee’s report drafted after the oversight visits.

It states that at a structural level, both municipalities exhibit significant human resource vulnerabilities marked by prolonged leadership vacancies and widespread staff non-compliance with minimum qualification requirements, alongside a breakdown in internal consequence management where oversight bodies fail to enforce timely disciplinary action. ​

While Msunduzi’s audit outcomes for the 2024/25 financial year improved from the qualified audit opinions of previous years, MPs noted that significant issues persist regarding performance reporting, compliance, financial management, and infrastructure delivery.

The Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) told Scopa earlier this year that despite the municipality spending 88% of its 2024/25 financial year budget, it only achieved 57.9% of its basic service delivery targets. 

The municipality failed to meet key service delivery targets, including the percentage of mainline bursts repaired, with only 7% achieved against a 60% target. Similarly, the target for the percentage of sewer blockages resolved was not met; only 10.9% was achieved against the 60% target.

“In addition, the municipality had also targeted to construct one reservoir during the financial year under review, and this has not been met, as the contractor was only handed the site in June 2025. Grass-cutting services were provided to only 17 of the targeted 30 wards, while refuse removal services were provided to only 4 765 out of 5 100 households.

“The municipality reported that these targets were not met due to operational constraints, including widespread vehicle and machinery breakdowns combined with staff shortages and vacant positions,” reads the report.  

The municipality incurred fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R114.060 million in the 2024/25 financial year, up from R25m the previous financial year.

The main contributors to fruitless and wasteful expenditure were interest charged on late payments (R87.017 million), mostly Eskom and Umngeni Water.

Other contributions were overpayments to senior officials (R6.026 million) and other employees (R1.187 million), and payments to then-Premier Soccer League team Royal AM (R10.350 million). 

During the financial year under review, Msunduzi Council wrote off R126.088 million as irrecoverable.

Scopa expressed concerns about the municipality failing to conclude disciplinary cases timeously. MPs highlighted issues regarding employees remaining on paid suspensions for extended periods, resigning or retiring before disciplinary hearings could be concluded, which ultimately allows no action for wrongdoing.

The municipality had told MPs that to prevent fruitless and wasteful expenditure caused by long paid suspensions (over six months), the municipality occasionally reinstates suspended employees to different units while their disciplinary investigations continue.

The committee also heard that disciplinary and forensic investigations faced severe delays due to death threats and intimidation directed at investigators, evidence leaders, and presiding officers. Because internal staff received threats, the municipality turned to external South African Local Government Association (SALGA) panels and investigators to run disciplinary proceedings.

With regard to Masilonyana, Scopa concluded that the municipality is “characterised by severe administrative dysfunction, poor record-keeping, and financial instability”.

The committee noted that the problems it identified in May were the same that its predecessor found in August 2022, when it conducted an oversight visit to the municipality.

“The committee found serious weaknesses in governance, financial management, service delivery, record-keeping, project management, revenue collection, supply chain management, and consequence management,” it said.

The municipality was placed under administration in February due to governance failures, financial distress, and inability to fulfil statutory service delivery obligations.