Msunduzi cuts wasteful spending by R120m, but financial woes persist

Msunduzi Municipality received a qualified audit after incurring R14 million in irregular expenditure and R33 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure for the 2023/2024 financial year. 

This was according to an Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) report presented earlier this week.

On Friday, Msunduzi Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla said the report serves as a crucial indicator of the municipality's financial health in resolving past audit findings. Irregular expenditure decreased from R60 million, while fruitless and wasteful expenditure dropped from R153 million in 2022/2023. 

Thebolla stated that in the previous financial year, the AGSA had nine findings compared to the latest of just one. He said it highlights the areas of compliance, improvements, and commitment to sound financial management and accountability.

 “The reduction in the findings is proof that our government is moving in the right direction,” he said. 

However, Anthony Waldhausen, chairperson of Msunduzi Association of Residents, Ratepayer and Civics (MARRC), said Thebolla promises to fix audit concerns, but nothing comes out of them to address all the challenges facing the financial situation.

“The municipality is unable to rescue itself from the continuous financial mismanagement. He goes on to say that irregular, wasteful, and fruitless expenditure has decreased from the previous year to the current year, but the question remains: why is there still irregular, wasteful, and fruitless expenditure?” he said. 

Waldhausen claimed that there is no consequence management for those responsible for irregular, wasteful, and fruitless expenditures.

Waldhausen said that to achieve revenue equity, Msunduzi should ensure urgent collection from all who can pay for municipal services. It was unacceptable that there was a 30% revenue collection rate when 70% of those who can pay are not paying, he added.

Waldhausen said MARRC could not trust Thebolla to turn things around because, in 2021, he made similar promises. 

"He promised to turn things around with a 100-day plan. Nothing has come of his plans. We are currently witnessing that the municipality has been unable to collect refuse for the past three weeks and counting. This is a demonstration of incompetency and poor management at the waste management department,” he said. 

Thebolla said that the municipality acknowledges setbacks in waste management and domestic waste collection, primarily due to the mechanical breakdown of vehicles.

"We understand the impact that this has had on residents,” he said. 

The mayor said they were in the process of securing additional vehicles and implementing necessary improvements to ensure efficient waste collection. 

Waldhausen said that MARRC will continue to provide solutions to the city’s challenges and urge residents to mobilise and to hold the council and municipality accountable.

He said MARRC recommended: 

• Support the AG in further investigations into revenue management, credit control, and slow responses to action plans.
• Disconnection drives must be done equally and to stop disconnecting the 30% and start an aggressive drive to disconnect the 70% and those that are illegally connected. These disconnection drives must be done every day and not on an ad hoc basis.
• There needs to be an overhaul of the revenue department and, as the AG suggested, of the investigation of the revenue management.

Thebolla urged all stakeholders to work with the city. He said an action plan to address the AGSA report will be submitted to the council for approval.

The AGSA report was not made public at the time of reporting. 

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za