Scopa chair Songezo Zibi urges simpler governance and stronger oversight for Joburg

The chairperson of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), Songezo Zibi, urged simplified governance and tighter political oversight at the City of Johannesburg after the municipality’s recent appearance before Parliament and a deterioration in its audit outcome.

Concerns raised at governance cluster briefing

Zibi addressed a briefing by Parliament’s governance cluster oversight committees alongside the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Zweli Mkhize. The meeting followed the municipality’s appearance before Parliament and reflected concerns set out in the Auditor-General’s latest local government audit report.

The Auditor-General, Tsakani Maluleke, said municipalities in Gauteng were experiencing declines in audit outcomes, financial health and service delivery. The City of Johannesburg’s audit outcome had deteriorated from an unqualified opinion to a qualified audit opinion.

Scale of the financial problems

It was revealed at the briefing that the City of Johannesburg has written off R45.16 billion in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful (UIFW) expenditure over the past five years. Mayor Dada Morero told Scopa and the Portfolio Committee on CoGTA that his administration is committed to restoring the city’s financial health.

Three key observations from Scopa

Zibi summarised three principal observations the committees made during the hearing with the City of Johannesburg: the need for stronger political oversight, the city’s excessive structural complexity, and weaknesses in contract and project management.

Political oversight must tighten

Zibi said political oversight from Members of the Mayoral Committee, the mayor, and council committees particularly the Municipal Public Accounts Committee needs to be strengthened to provide effective scrutiny of the city’s administration and its numerous entities.

“I think the MMCs, the mayor, as well as the committees within the council, and in particular the Municipal Public Accounts Committee, need to put in a lot more effort into providing that level of oversight.”

City structure described as unnecessarily complex

Scopa noted that the City of Johannesburg is unusually layered, with what Zibi described as around 12 to 13 agencies beneath the core administration. He said each entity has its own governance and financial arrangements, which complicates oversight.

“The second observation which we raised with the City of Johannesburg is that the city is unnecessarily complex. I think it was by mutual agreement… My mutual observation in the hearing with the city is that there is no other city on planet earth that has 13 entities underneath it.”

Contract and project management problems

Zibi highlighted issues raised by the Auditor-General about contract management, including unpaid suppliers, missing technical drawings, and payment practices that have contributed to cash-flow problems at some municipal entities such as City Power and Pikitup.

“The A-G certainly raised a lot of issues regarding the management of contracts, suppliers going unpaid, technical drawings and the like being unavailable, and yet the contractors are doing the work, and they continue to get paid.”

Ongoing engagement and intergovernmental response

Zibi said Scopa’s work with the City of Johannesburg will be carried out jointly with CoGTA, the National Treasury and the Auditor-General, and that engagement with municipalities will be ongoing through the end of the 7th Parliament.

“We are going to be on a journey until the end of the 7th Parliament to make sure that we continue to work with the Auditor-General. We work with other departments, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the National Treasury, and we work with the Auditor-General to get to a point where the outcomes are outcomes that South Africans can see in the level of service delivery that they get.”

Dr Zweli Mkhize said the committees have asked the city to clarify a range of issues, including its financial management, debts to lending bodies, and service delivery problems such as high water losses and debts to municipal creditors and Eskom.

“There’s a lot of work still to be done in relation to the City of Johannesburg.”

Both Zibi and Mkhize indicated that interactions with the city will not be one-off, signalling continued parliamentary oversight aimed at restoring financial stability and service delivery.