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President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked Prime Minister Oscar Mabuyane to ensure that there is consequence management for failed councils in the Eastern Cape.
Only one municipality in the province achieved a clean audit in 2018/2019.
Ramaphosa addressed the Eastern Cape government lekgotla on Tuesday. The lekgotla, intended to discuss the government’s priorities in 2021, was attended by Mabuyane, MEC, mayors from across the province, and representatives from Transnet.
The president said that governance challenges in councils must be addressed in order to fulfill his electoral mandate to the people.
“These are reflected in poor results of municipal audits, lack of capacity in municipal offices, corruption and mismanagement, poor supervision and underfunded budgets,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the government urgently needed to work to overcome delays in service delivery that affected people’s lives.
“There must be a management of consequences for the municipalities that do not provide services, accompanied by corrective measures. In this difficult time, when poverty is likely to worsen as a result of the pandemic, we have to show that we are a professional and caring government that is accountable to the people we serve, ”he said.
In 2020, municipalities in the province turned to the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs for support to help them improve their results after years of poor audit results.
All 39 municipalities in the province received a regrettable report card from the auditor general in the audit report for the 2018/2019 financial year, and only the municipality of Senqu received a clean health certificate.
The prime minister’s committee office recently released an annual report detailing how Most of the municipalities had difficulty in accounting for public funds due to political instability.
Ramaphosa encouraged municipalities to work with the recently established project management unit.
The unit is a creation of the cooperative governance department and is supported by the provincial treasury.
HeraldLIVE
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