City of Joburg Mayor Geoff Makhubo met with the office of the Auditor General (AG) on 6 March to discuss the City’s financial health during the 2018/19 financial year.
In a statement, Makhubo shared his concerns over the information the AG provided him, saying that they had highlighted gross irregularities that have seen the City incurring R3 billion in irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Makhubo said the AG report ‘concurs with us that the financials of the City are reflective of some gross maladministration and possible fraud and corruption’.
He added that the report was also a reflection of a systematic push to dismiss competent officials over the past three years and to corruptly manipulate the procurement processes of the City.
Another concern for Makhubo was that the City had ‘lost’ R617 million for service delivery which was not used in the past three years.
“Currently, a further R237 million in transport infrastructure grants may be withdrawn, and we are engaging National Treasury to avert it as part of our efforts to turn around the financial state of the City,” Makhubo said.
Makhubo concluded in his statement that they would be working on bringing services and finances back to normal.
Former Joburg Mayor Herman Mashaba now a leader of a political platform, The People’s Dialogue, had previously responded to the current administration’s allegations of financial mismanagement and that the City was on the brink of collapse.
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At the time Mashaba said, “Contrary to these allegations, the pre-audit financial statements for 2018/19 financial year reflected a significant improvement in the City’s financial health and liquidity.”
Spokesperson for The People’s Dialogue, Michael Beaumont told News24 that Makhubo’s statement was an attempt to tarnish the work of the coalition government. He said, “The AG’s report does not substantiate this claim. This is an attempt to take an accumulative report [over a number of years] and try [to] paint that as one financial year.”
The AG will release the full reports of all municipalities in June.
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