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The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the Auditor-General’s (AG) decision to issue South Africa’s first Certificate of Debt (CoD) since the Public Audit Act was strengthened in 2019.

It should not have taken this long, but this step finally shows that municipal managers who ignore clear warnings and allow public money to bleed away will now be held personally responsible.

The CoD issued to the Municipal Manager of Ngaka Modiri Molema District, ordering him to repay R4.6 million lost through an inflated water-tanker tender, sends a message that many more municipal officials need to hear. For too long, managers who oversaw wasteful spending simply walked away without consequences while communities suffered through collapsing services.

This action also comes against the backdrop of a deeply worrying national picture. The AG’s latest report confirms what South Africans experience daily: most municipalities are in serious financial trouble. Only 16% of the country's municipalities, most of which are DA-run, received clean bills of health, while the rest are riddled with various kinds of irregularities.

Johannesburg and Tshwane continue to spend money they don’t have, racking up billions in unauthorised expenditure. Almost half the country’s municipalities cannot even produce performance reports that meet basic standards.

None of this is abstract. Poor financial management directly translates into dry taps, broken roads, failing sewer systems and stalled local economies. Businesses cannot operate where the basics are falling apart.

That is why this CoD cannot stand alone. It must be the start of a new era in which municipal managers understand that ignoring the law, ducking remedial instructions, or signing off reckless budgets will have personal consequences. No municipality can deliver services while its finances are in shambles, and the AG’s intervention must drive that point home.

Issued by Marina van Zyl MP - DA Spokesperson on Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs