Msunduzi Municipality has received an unqualified audit outcome with findings for the 2024/25 financial year, indicating that the City produced credible and transparent financial statements, despite ongoing compliance challenges. The municipality welcomed the outcome, describing it as confirmation of significant improvements in financial reporting, governance and the overall control environment. Auditor-General South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal business unit leader, Nomalungelo Mkhize, said the audit showed noticeable progress in the quality of the City’s financial statements, although several areas still required attention.
Among the key concerns highlighted was the municipality’s ageing ICT infrastructure, which exposes the City to potential cyberattacks and requires urgent capacity-building. Mkhize also pointed to issues in financial management, saying that while misstatements in the financial statements had been addressed, the average 191-day delay in paying creditors remained a serious concern. Legislation requires municipalities to settle creditor payments within 30 days.
Msunduzi Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla acknowledged that while this was good news, challenges persist, particularly with expenditure management and the late payment of creditors. He said these shortcomings had been clearly identified and incorporated into the municipality’s audit action plan, with targeted interventions already under way to improve financial discipline and cash-flow management. Instead, we commit to addressing them decisively.
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“I have called on the Municipal Public Accounts Committee, the audit committee and internal audit to fast-track investigations into material irregularities, strengthen consequence management and ensure that accountability is enforced without fear or favour,” Thebolla said. He said the audit opinion confirmed that the work undertaken by council and management over the years was beginning to yield results.
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