Broke Sakhisizwe municipality gets it in the neck from AG

The administration hierarchy at the broke Sakhisizwe municipality is not fit to govern and the instability in its community is a consequence of a weakened interface between the administrative and political systems.

This was the scathing message delivered by outgoing auditor-general Kimi Makwetu at a recent webinar hosted by the Cala University Students Association.

Makwetu said that at the end of the latest year under review, 2019, the AG had found that “the hands placed at the till are not very suitable”.

“They are the type of hands that allow leakages to happen.

“They are the type of hands that allow for inappropriate transactions to flow through.

“They are the type of hands that are unable to account for some of the assets that the municipality buys, which assets are geared towards all citizens. ”

The AG said Sakhisizwe authorities were not managing their resources.

“They are big amounts of money in the sense that if you look at its statement of financial performance, Sakhisizwe received grants from the national government to the extent of R82.5m. That’s a huge chunk of money. ”

Makwetu said the money was meant for the material impact and benefit of Sakhisizwe residents.

“It is not money geared for the use of specific personal satisfaction of any individual.

“It is government grants and subsidies that are laid out from the collection of taxes,” he said.

The AG said that in 2019 alone the municipality had spent R115m more than its revenue.

“Hence in their financial statements they now have a deficit of R8.3m. That’s important for us, for the purpose of this conversation, to understand that there is this challenge that there are limited resources.

“However, the utilisation of these resources in some cases even exceeds what has been made available in terms of the funding, the revenue earned locally and earned in the form of income. ”

Makwetu implored Sakhisizwe residents to try to follow annual reports and civil society to scrutinise how the money was allocated through IDPs or other plans in place.

“Even if they have not been trained as accountants they can always draw from some people within the jurisdiction of Sakhisizwe to help them analyse and understand what exactly these numbers mean, what they say to us and what do they say about us.”

Other panelists were Wits University School of Business lecturer Sandile Swana, who gave an analysis of the municipality ’ s IDP, and Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution executive secretary Lawson Naidoo, who summarised the discussion.

Basil Mase, seconded by Cogta as acting municipal manager at Sakhisizwe, could not be reached on Thursday.