Note to Editors: Please find English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr Jacqui Uys here, and here
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is disappointed in the failure of the City of Tshwane to obtain an unqualified audit for the 2023/24 financial year, despite serious and diligent work being done towards this objective.
After clearing two of the three obstacles to an unqualified audit last year, the city has not been able to persaude the Auditor-General that the valuation of property, plant and equipment in its financial statements is credible.
While the audit report does indicate significant improvement of governance and accountability, the AG points out that a change of organisational culture in Tshwane has not yet been achieved.
All of the 12 material irregularities discovered in previous financial years have been resolved. R11 million in financial losses were prevented, R7 million is in the process of recovery, and R50 million has been recovered. But the AG has identified the theft of water and electricity as a new material irregularity, pointing to the prevalence of criminality overwhelming the capacity of the municipality and law enforcement agencies.
There is no doubt that internal weaknesses, including corruption inside Tshwane’s revenue management division, enable the theft of services to continue undeterred.
The culture change to which the AG refers will only be achieved if tough action is taken against officials responsible for the misspending of taxpayers’ money. Worrying practices by the current government that suggest they may not be committed to this culture change include:
- An unprovoked attack on the city manager by the EFF;
- The failure to schedule or convene any meetings for the oversight committee responsible for investigating mispending of public funds; and
- Failing to schedule or convene the Executive Audit Tracking Committee put in place by Cilliers Brink, whose purpose was to track consequence management of audit outcomes.
Taking action against officials who misspend public funds was a priority of the DA and our coalition partners under the mayoralty of Cilliers Brink, and it is essential that the current government support measures taken by Tshwane’s city manager to this end not see it reversed. When at the beginning of the year Brink discovered that the suspension of the Rooiwal Five has been uplifted, he pointed to the fact that one of these officials had been the city’s head of supply chain management for over a decade.
In this period the city awarded a string of multi-billion rand irregular tenders, including one to a consortium of Edwin Sodi for the upgrade of the Rooiwal waste water treatment plant.
This is why the case of the Rooiwal Five, and the determination to blacklist the entities and directors who got the tender only to abandon the project, is a litmus test for improved governance.
The DA once again calls on the city administration to clarify the position of the Rooiwal Five, and whether the upliftment of their suspension will be taken on review. As DA caucus leader in Tshwane, Cilliers Brink has also written to National Treasury to track the progress of the Sodi blacklisting initiated by Tshwane under Brink’s leadership