I am worried, and I think all South Africans should be. The findings in the AG report are far from satisfactory. These findings relate to the audit outcomes for local government. Although my background is in accountancy, I will try my best to speak like a layman and not use accounting jargon. The aim of my writing is to reach every South African, whether they have a background in accounting or not.
Let me just emphasize this point: local government institutions, like municipalities, are arguably the engine of governance in a country, especially a country like ours. As such, it should sadden all South Africans that these institutions are failing in their mandate. Municipalities are closest to the communities we live in; they are closer to the people they are meant to serve. If they fail in this crucial role, the country will be in ruins. There will be a failure in building reliable infrastructure, for example, which may end up costing SA citizens more, and the vicious cycle continues.
Another thing that saddens me is the lack of knowledge among the average South African. It seems to me that conversations like these are limited to boardrooms and are never discussed broadly in our society. This then leads to an uninformed voting populace and, unfortunately, the vicious cycle will continue. I mean, the local government elections will be taking place in 2026. I bet many South Africans will not be taking into account the AG findings in their voting decision-making. The AG presentation in parliament on YouTube has only been watched by about 2,000 people as of 14 September 2024; out of a 63 million population, 42.3 million of which are eligible to vote.
South Africa is a complex country with numerous problems, some of which could be avoided, like poor quality education, but I will not try to be an expert and speak about all these problems at once. I am just going to speak my opinion as a layman, which is probably a drop in an ocean, but who cares? I will share my opinion anyway.
Let’s go back to the main reason for me spending my energy resources writing this article at 22:00, lol, the AG findings. Firstly, let us look at what is the role of AG in South Africa because I would be naïve if I assume that everyone knows who or what AG is. In a nutshell and less technical way, AG is the auditor of public institutions as mandated by the South African Constitution. What an auditor does is to examine the financial statements, which reflect the financial affairs of an institution, and issue an opinion on them in terms of their reliability. When the auditor examines these financial statements, they aim to inform the users of these financial statements that they can rely on them because they do not contain significant errors. The auditor does this by issuing an audit report. This is what the Auditor General of South Africa does for government institutions. It is important to note that the role of AG is not limited to examining financial statements; it also looks at the service delivery report, the reliability thereof, and examines the compliance of government institutions with relevant laws and regulations.
Per the presentation of AG, the mission of AG: “AG SA has a constitutional mandate and, as the supreme audit institution of SA, exists to strengthen our country’s democracy by enabling oversight, accountability, and governance in the public sector through auditing, thereby building public confidence.” And its vision: “To be recognized by all our stakeholders as a relevant supreme audit institution that enhances public sector accountability.” What I am doing now is to enhance this vision.
The Auditor General measures the audit outcomes by looking at three things:
- Correctness of financial information.
- Correctness and reliability of a service delivery report.
- Compliance with relevant legislation, especially in relation to procurement.
These are mainly the types of audit reports that the AG issues:
- Clean audit report – where the auditee (e.g., municipality) meets all the above requirements.
- Unqualified with findings – where the auditee does not meet the second, the third requirement, or both.
- Qualified – all three requirements are not met.
Now, the findings for FY22/23 audit show that only 34 auditees out of 257 had a clean audit report. That is only 13% of SA municipalities meet the three requirements above. Let that sink in! These are very bad results, to say the least. Put it another way, 87% of SA municipalities have unreliable books. According to StatSA, 29% of municipalities’ revenue is derived from national government grants and subsidies, that portion, though it seems small, is in billions of rands; the rest (71%) is self-generated. No, it is not the government’s money; it is your money, especially if you are employed, as the number one source of SA government tax revenue is received via PAYE (i.e., employees’ tax). VAT is the second in line. Therefore, you should be enraged that people who take money from you and your family cannot account for it.
The state of SA municipalities is abysmal, and this calls for self-introspection. Not only for people running these municipalities but also for each and every South African, black South Africans, in particular. In my discussion of issues, I ideally like to put race aside and not look at the world through race lenses. The reason being, looking at the world through race lenses is divisive and can lead to unnecessary tensions. However, in this case, I have made an exception. I have made an exception because I am a black man, I care about my country and my community, both of which are predominantly black.
It is a fact that the majority of government institutions are run by black people. I will not go into the history of that because we all know it. There is a deep concern that I had while listening to the auditor general when she was presenting the results. It made me ask a lot of questions, like why is South Africa not progressing and becoming a developed country? Or to widen the question, why is Africa behind? I remember once when a lady on Facebook asked a pastor thus, “Is Africa cursed?”
These are the questions that really concern me on a deeper level, and sometimes I choose not to ask them because asking them is too painful, and I will probably not like the answers. What if the answers show that I am part of the problem? What if the man that needs to change is the man that I see in the mirror? “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” So, like everyone else, I repress these questions.
Looking at my own life and that of fellow black South Africans, something is apparent to me, and that is culture. I believe that the source of many problems for black South Africans comes from culture. The black man needs to look within himself and ask if he is not his own enemy. Africa is behind. I may not statistically prove that, but everyone can see; you do not need stats. Of course, the so-called intellectuals would insist that I produce stats to prove my point. Here it is: the continent that has the poorest countries is Africa. Debates can be held about what is causing this, and that is a discussion of its own. However, one of the causes I suspect is self-inflicted wounds, which brings me to the discussion of culture.
From a layman’s perspective, there seem to be two things holding Africa back:
- Ethics (i.e., corruption).
- Unskilled populace.
Now, to bring the matter home, these issues are manifest in institutions like municipalities in South Africa. One of the issues that the Auditor General highlighted in her report is the lack of professionalism and ethics in municipalities. I would argue, it is mostly ethics. You do not need to be an expert to know how corrupt the local government is, you just need to live in South Africa. Maybe if it was not, most of the municipalities would receive a clean audit.
I have had discussions about the culture that black South Africans possess with quite a few people I know. Some of them asked, what do I mean by culture. This is a very good question. I would define culture as that which a group of people hold in esteem or worship, and it has to do more with unconscious behaviors that have been ingrained in that group for decades. In my culture as a black person, doing bad things can be normalized or even praised. I know this because I grew up in a black community. For example, in my surroundings when I was growing up, you were very discouraged if you wanted to be an outlier, for example, by reading books and communicating in English. Instead, you should have been outdoors hitting on girls and trying to sleep with a few (which is more than one), or sometimes just chill with gents and enjoy a bottle of cold beer. Mind you, I was still in my teenage years. Fights would break out in my school, like serious street fights; one of the male learners was stabbed in the neck and thank God he did not die. Guess what would happen when these fights occurred? Girls would scream! And the young naïve boy learners would go crazy at the sound of this. This school was a black school, all learners were black, and it was located in a black area, one of the poorest in Estcourt. So, these learners were the ones who needed education the most. Education is cited as one of the quickest ways to get people out of poverty. The people who needed education the most were focusing on anything else but education.
To say, matric results of my school were bad, would be an understatement. You could say I happened to be one of the lucky ones. In my class, around 70% was the pass rate, but do not get too excited. The Bachelor passes, I am sure, were way less than that. Also, you need to remember that in South Africa, the high school pass mark is an embarrassing 30% – just not know 70% of your work, and you are guaranteed a pass. What a smart benchmark, anyway, topic for another day. I heard that the class after my matric class got a pass rate of about 30%. It was hard to dispute this, so I did not even try to verify the percentage. Another interesting fact! (I am being sarcastic here) The school that I went to was a government school (surprise, surprise). You can even tell by the English that I speak (all she’s instead of he’s and the long pauses in between while the brain is still translating from Zulu to English) that, ah, this one went to a government school that learned English in IsiZulu.
Some black people out there would say, “Ah, but English is not a measure of intelligence,” which is a true statement but is grossly misused, I think what these people mean is English is not that important and that is categorically false! English may not be a measure of intelligence, but it is sure an important language to be able to express yourself in. Failure to do so blocks many economic and social benefits. Even the Asians are recruiting South Africans to teach them English, but there is a smart black South African out there who thinks English is not important. I remember one of my relatives telling me how she failed job interviews because she could not express herself in English. These are the types of things I am referring to when I refer to the problem with our culture.
I can surely quote many examples to illustrate my point, but we do not have all day. If you are a black person, I am sure you can also think of a few mindset or culture examples to agree with what I am referring to. Trust me, before racists get excited, this is not a skin color problem. The problem is not with being black; the problem is being immersed in a trench of wrong ideas about the world that hold us back. Thomas Sowell, in his book “Black Rednecks and White Liberals,” mentions that this unproductive culture was also found in some parts of the European and American world. Refer to this YouTube video which sums up Sowell’s assertion well. In closing, black man, clean your room.