Tshwane: Unqualified audit is a symbol of change and delivery

25 January 2018

Life is getting better for the residents of Tshwane.

The DA-led multi-party administration under the leadership of Mayor Solly Msimanga has achieved an unqualified audit for the 2016/17 financial year.

This has been no small feat.

Upon taking office, the ANC had left the City on the brink of financial collapse. A costly smart meter project, which had been flagged by the Auditor-General as one of the biggest areas of irregular expenditure, failing supply chain management policies and rampant unauthorised expenditure were the hallmarks of the previous administration.

This administration clawed back irregular expenditure, as well as unauthorised expenditure. The PEU smart meter contract has been binned and a new suitable contractor, who has not been found irregular by a Court of Law has been appointed.

The City ended the 2016/17 financial year with an operating surplus of R704 250 million, opposed to the inherited deficit of R1.3 billion meaning that there is more money in the pot to change the lives of residents and build better communities across the City.

A key enabler of this has been thinking out the box and engaging in cross sector dialogue to pool alternative streams of revenue.

Even though the economic climate now is not favourable, and across the province unemployment is rising slightly, a revamped EPWP programme has been formulated to ensure that the City’s residents have a fair and equal opportunity to accessing work programmes.

More money in the City’s coffers allow us to take better care of our people than ever before.

Service delivery is on the rise and the challenges of prolonged down-time are being whittled away.

The City does not just aim to be a world class city, but it aspires to ensure that residents feel world class.

These changes are felt through the democratic processes afforded to us through the ballot box. Every resident of Gauteng deserves world class status.

I would like to thank and congratulate Mayor Msimanga and his team, across the political spectrum, as well as every civil servant who has affected a positive change in Tshwane.

Issued by John Moodey, DA Gauteng Provincial Leader, 25 January 2018