QWAQWA — Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality has finally cleared a crippling financial reporting backlog that stretched back more than a decade, with annual financial statements now submitted on time.
The breakthrough was confirmed during the outgoing council’s final sitting on 15 October, ending years of audit failure that left the municipality unable to account for public money.
“We didn’t have challenges of submission. There was pressure. However, we did submit the annual financial statements on time,” audit committee member Sidwell Mofokeng said.
For years, MAP was notorious for missing deadlines and disclaimers. Council Speaker Mandlenkosi Dlamini admitted the council had to excavate records as far back as 2011 to fix opening and closing balances.
“We had to go back in the previous terms of 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 to submit there. When we were busy with the opening and closing balance, we had to go back up to 2011,” Dlamini told the media after the sitting.
“But that is the issue of the past. We have dealt with it. Now it’s up to date,” he said.
Mofokeng credited a new enterprise reporting system for dragging the municipality’s finances into order.
“We noted significant improvement in the finance department in terms of trying to bring all the consumers into the billing system. We were able to prepare financial statements. We were able to bring the asset register of that system, although not complete, but it was in progress,” he said.
But he warned the incoming council that the hard work starts now.
The Auditor-General’s findings after the November audit must be implemented, and a post-audit action plan integrating two years of challenges will be needed.
“The mayor must ensure that those recommendations are implemented,” Mofokeng said.
Dlamini laid bare the chaos that defined the outgoing term – a revolving door of leadership that crippled oversight.
“We had four mayors, four mayors for this term. One mayor lasted nearly a year or less than that. We had two speakers. We had three municipal managers, and we had two CFOs,” he said.
“Since I was appointed as speaker in September 2023, it was very difficult, very, very difficult… That issue of coalition is still a problem.”
Despite the turmoil, Dlamini claimed visible service delivery wins, particularly on water.
“When we started in 2021, almost 170-something water tanks were running around. Then we made sure from 126, then to 70, to 36, to 30, to 13, then seven. Then we even bought our own water trucks to phase out water tankers,” he said.
Electricity infrastructure, roads and sewer plants are also being fixed, he said.
Mofokeng urged the new council to urgently appoint two audit committee members to ensure continuity.
