Clean municipal audits or senior heads will roll

The minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs, Sicelo Shiceka, has staked his political future on cleaning up rampant corruption in South Africa's municipalities.

On Friday he committed his department to ensuring a clean audit for 60% of municipalities by 2012; 75% by 2013 - and 100% by 2014, the Sunday Times reported on 20 June 2010.

Many would call this Mission Impossible, given that only 2% made the grade last year.

Asked if he had included these targets in his own performance contract co-signed by President Jacob Zuma, Shiceka said all officials, himself included, were bound by them.

"You can't get a bonus if you get a disclaimer or adverse audit opinion. And you can't stay in your position. In the past we have been very lenient."

His newly appointed director-general, Elroy Africa, would be the first to go if municipalities did not deliver, he said. "We are putting our heads on the block. If he doesn't perform, why should he keep his job? Before I go, I must start with him."


This month auditor-general Terence Nombembe tabled his latest report on local government audit outcomes. He gave only four out of the 247 municipalities who had submitted financial statements on time a clean bill of health.

He told the Sunday Times none of the 36 municipalities who had filed late were likely to receive clean audits - "so there has been no improvement since last year in clean audits".

But interviews conducted with the mayors of every municipality in six provinces had given him grounds for hope.

"Strengthening political oversight is the key to getting clean audits, and I am seeing new commitment (to this) at a political level," he said.

Municipal riots and rates boycotts have become commonplace in smaller centres and peri-urban areas as services grind to a halt amid widespread corruption and mismanagement.

Shiceka said he believed the key to solving the crisis lay in improved financial management. "If we can clean up the system, we will be able to combat corruption because we will know what money was used for."

The worst-performing provinces were the Northern Cape, Free State, Eastern Cape and North West, where so-called section 139 notices are regularly served, allowing provincial governments to appoint administrators to take over the running of dysfunctional municipalities.

Shiceka said he expected Mafikeng in North West to be next to be served with such a notice, pending cabinet approval: "There has been a lot of corruption going on there."

The state's anti-corruption Special Investigating Unit is looking into the affairs of 25 municipalities in North West alone "to unravel the details of the corruption", he said .

The Municipal Systems Amendment Bill, expected to be signed into law this year, contains another key intervention. Proposals aimed at professionalising the civil service, already approved by cabinet, include banning political office bearers from occupying top municipal posts. "We want to depoliticise municipal management. The key is employment of skilled people," said Shiceka.

For rates boycotters, his message was clear: "It's illegal. We must obey the rule of law."

Shiceka himself faces claims that he cooked his CV and used state resources to throw a party for his mother at his home village in the Eastern Cape. The allegations prompted calls by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi that he should be investigated for corruption, along with the minister of communications, Siphiwe Nyanda.

But Shiceka insisted the claims did not dent his credibility as a self-proclaimed corruption buster. "I have never faked my CV anywhere and I used my own money for the birthday party," he said. "I'm very careful about that (because) it comes back to bite you. My conscience is clear."