‘Spend state money on SA people’

Violent and destructive protests would be avoided if state funds were spent in the service of ordinary South Africans, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said yesterday.

This follows after Auditor-General Kimi Makwe released “The State of Local Government and Financial Management 2017” report, on Wednesday. The report found that the number of municipalities with clean audits dropped from 48 in the 2015-16 financial year to 33, while there was an increase in the number of municipalities receiving unqualified audit reports, from a 108 to 112. Qualified audit outcomes increased from 60 to 66.

“There is a direct link between billions being lost through irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure by those tasked with managing the finances of municipalities and the lack of service delivery, which has ignited so many violent and destructive protests,” the commision said.

There are more than 250 municipalities in South Africa.

“The commission shares in the auditor-general’s frustration as a majority of municipalities continue in failing to pay heed to the advice and caution of his office and thus showed a deterioration in audit outcomes,” the SAHRC said.

The commission added that it was clear that these municipalities were not achieving the progressive realisation of the rights as envisaged in the constitution.

“Billions have been lost, billions that have robbed ordinary people from receiving the most basic social services they are constitutionally entitled to.

“South Africa is subject to regular, violent and destructive protests due to community anger at the lack of service delivery,” the commission said. – ANA