One of the worst municipalities in Gauteng, which according to the auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke failed to submit its financial statement, operates with less than half of the required staff capacity.
Merafong local municipality, one of the council flagged by the AG, has a 51% vacancy rate. The same municipality has neither a municipal manager nor a chief financial officer. It also has a 38% vacancy rate among senior managers.
Sowetan visited the municipality’s biggest township, Khutsong, and residents spoke about their struggles to get basic services.
In Ext 2, sewerage flowed in the streets causing an unbearable smell in the neighbourhood.
Cebisile Mathenjwa, 36, who has been living in the area for a decade, said they had been forced to get used to the stench.
A burst sewerage pipe is next to Mathenjwa’s house and flows into the street.
“This place is just a mess. We have reported this problem to the municipality. They have sent people to come and fix the problem but they did not win. Any other person would not survive this stench. We somehow have been able to learn to live with it,” Mathenjwa said.
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She said that the street lights have not been working “for ages”. It has made our area very unsafe in the morning. Our municipality seems not to care at all. If sometimes you see people coming to fix the road, it will never be people from this community, while our youth is unemployed. It is all about who you are connected to.”
In ward 6, which is known as Xhosa section, a group of youngsters was sweeping the streets and burning all the garbage that has piled up in a nearby open veld.
Residents told Sowetan the municipality struggles to collect refuse regularly. When the truck fails to pitch up, residents dump garbage in open spaces.
Noluvuyo Mgqubeni, one of the youth, said they chose to clean the area because they know the municipality will not do a thing about their problems. “There are serious problems in our area. There are water disruption that we experience frequently without any notice from the municipality. We now and again find ourselves living without water for two or three days. A portion of this area has been without electricity for four months.”
Mgqubeni said unemployment in Khutsong is extremely high despite the town having four mines.
Khutsong also does not have sports facilities. Due to the high levels of drugs, the netball court in the community was ripped apart for scrap.
In her report, Maluleke said only 61 municipalities had a better audit outcome in 2020-21 than in 2016-17, with 56 now having a worse audit outcome. She said the financial health of 230 municipalities and 18 municipal entities showed increasing indications of a collapse in local government finances and continued deterioration over the term of the administration.
She found that most municipalities had inadequate systems to report their performance, and officials did not understand performance management and reporting requirements. Maluleke said this had a link with service delivery as incorrect performance measures and targets were used.
Even the older generation in Khutsong said they are fed-up with the poor service. “For the first time, I did not vote during the local government elections last year. I’m tired. I have voted before and there is no change. People who benefit are those with political connections. I’m tired of voting for people to eat while I remain hungry,” said Rejoice Gaye.
Voting patterns in Khutsong have shown that fewer people participated in elections. In the 2021 local government elections, 75,000 people voted and only 38,000 (48.9%) voted the ANC to power to govern the almost 200,000 residents of Merafong.
Precious Busakwe said the situation was becoming hopeless. “We grew up in this place. We finish school and see the little opportunities that come benefiting a certain few. That is why most people do not vote. Promises that are made during elections are never fulfilled.”
West Rand is another municipality that was flagged in Gauteng after it received a qualified audit opinion for the second consecutive year. This means there was insufficient evidence for the AG to conclude that financial statements are not materially misstated.
But it was not all gloom and doom as Senqu local municipality in the Eastern Cape maintained clean audits for five years in a row. In Gauteng, the Midvaal local municipality, achieved eight clean audits in a row.
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