Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu delivered another bleak report on the state of South Africa's municipalities on Wednesday, with irregular spend increasing and a minority of municipalities reporting clean audits for 2018/2019.
Despite spending R1 billion on consultants, outcomes barely improved. Unauthorised expenditure remained high at R11 billion and irregular spend stood at R32 billion. Fruitless and wasteful expenditure increased by R2 billion.
Alongside this news, a second, darker picture emerged: the question of Covid-19. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni boosted municipalities' financial resources to help them respond to the pandemic in the supplementary budget.